Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Review Article: Tracing the recorded history of thin-film sputter deposition: From the 1800s to 2017

Thin films, ubiquitous in today's world, have a documented history of more than 5000 years. However, thin-film growth by sputter deposition, which required the development of vacuum pumps and electrical power in the 1600s and the 1700s, is a much more recent phenomenon. First reported in the early 1800s, sputter deposition already dominated the optical-coating market by 1880. Preferential sputtering of alloys, sputtering of liquids, multitarget sputtering, and optical spectroscopy for process characterization were all described in the 1800s. Measurements of threshold energies and yields were carried out in the late 1800s, and yields in reasonable agreement with modern data were reported in the 1930s. Roll-to-roll sputter coating on flexible substrates was introduced in the mid-1930s, and the initial demonstration of sustained self-sputtering (i.e., sputtering without gas) was performed in 1970. The term magnetron dates to 1921, and the results of the first magnetron sputtering experiments were published i.
Scalable Asymmetric Supercapacitors Based on Hybrid Organic/Biopolymer Electrodes

A trihybrid bioelectrode composed of lignin, poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), and poly(aminoanthraquinone) (PAAQ) is prepared by a two‐step galvanostatic electropolymerization, and characterized for supercapacitor applications. Using PEDOT/Lignin as a base layer, followed by the consecutive deposition of PAAQ, the hybrid electrode PEDOT/Lignin/PAAQ shows a high specific capacitance of 418 F g−1 with small self‐discharge. This trihybrid electrode material can be assembled into symmetric and asymmetric supercapacitors. The asymmetric supercapacitor uses PEDOT + Lignin/PAAQ as positive electrode and PEDOT/PAAQ as negative electrode, and exhibits superior electrochemical performance due to the synergistic effect of the two electrodes, which leads to a specific capacitance of 74 F g−1. It can be reversibly cycled in the voltage range of 0–0.7 V. More than 80% capacitance is retained after 10 000 cycles. These remarkable features reveal the exciting potential of a full organic energy storage device with long cycle life.
Comparison of multi-scale directional feature extraction methods for image processing

COMPARISON OF MULTI-SCALE DIRECTIONAL FEATURE EXTRACTION METHODS FOR IMAGE PROCESSING Alican Bozkurt M.S. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering Supervisor: Prof. Dr. A. Enis Çetin August, 2013 Almost all images that are presented in classification problems regardless of area of application, have directional information embedded into its texture. Although there are many algorithms developed to extract this information, there is no ‘golden’ method that works the best every image. In order to evaluate performance of these developed algorithms, we consider 7 different multi-scale directional feature extraction algorithms along with our own multi-scale directional filtering framework. We perform tests on several problems from diverse areas of application such as font/style recognition on English, Arabic, Farsi, Chinese, and Ottoman texts, grading of follicular lymphoma images, and stratum corneum thickness calculation. We present performance metrics such as k-fold cross validation accuracies and times to extract feature from one sample, and compare with the respective state of art on each problem. Our multi-resolution computationally efficient directional approach provides results on a par with the state of the art directional feature extraction methods.
Advanced treatment of dyehouse effluents by Fe(II) and Mn(II)-catalyzed ozonation and the H2O2/O3 process

Treatment of synthetic dyehouse effluent containing six reactive dyestuffs and their assisting chemicals by O 3 /Fe(II), O 3 /Mn(II), and O 3 /H 2 O 2 advanced oxidation processes was investigated. All oxidation processes were capable of completely decolourizing the wastewater within 30 min. Decolourization proceeded fastest by the O 3 /Mn(II) process, whereas the O 3 /H 2 O 2 combination was more efficient in the removal of DOC (Dissolved Organic carbon) and UV 254nm which were 11 and 53%, respectively, for one hour treatment time. Application of Fe(II)-catalyzed ozonation provided an effective means of removing colour and COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) by a five- and nine-fold enhancement, respectively, compared with conventional coagulation applied at the same coagulant doses. Formation of toxic oxidation products was not observed during the course of treatment with all investigated advanced oxidation processes.
How could Finland promote renewable-energy technology innovation and implementation?

Several major market failures are hindering renewable energy production. Probably the most significant one of these are negative externalities. Another issue hindering renewable energy production is low technological and commercial maturity. These technologies might not become commercially viable in the near future without state intervention. This study aims to analyse Finnish energy policy based on current legislation related to renewable energy production and budget policy related to renewable-energy subsidies. This study shows that the polluter-pays principle is implemented quite well in Finland due to the emissions trading scheme and taxation. Still, this principle is not entirely implemented in electricity production as electricity tax is not based on the carbon intensity of the fuel used, but rather on who uses the electricity. National subsidy policies focus on a short-term increase in renewable energy production as most subsidies are production subsidies granted through a bidding process, making these subsidy policies partly technology-neutral. These policies do not take into account long-term needs for energy policy as much as they could.
Synthesis, Characterization and Dielectric Properties of Novel Metal Oxide - Phthalocyanine Nanocomposites

Organic and metal-organic polymers which have electrical properties have opened up a promising field in material science and engineering. Phthalocyanine (H2Pc) and metal oxide– phthalocyanine (MO-Pc) where (MO = ZnO, NiO, FeO and CoO) were prepared by urea fusion technique. The prepared composites were identified by means of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The XRD data indicate that the ZnO-Pc and NiO-Pc are highly crystalline and particle sizes are 13 nm and 9 nm respectively. The dielectric properties including dielectric constant ɛ' and dielectric loss ɛ'' of the prepared composites were calculated from the experimental capacitance values in the frequency range 100 Hz to 5MHz and in the temperature range of 25oC to 120oC. Generally, ɛ' are found to be decreased with increasing frequency and increase with increasing temperature. It is obvious that, appearance of peak for each MO in the dielectric loss suggests the presence of relaxing dipoles in the MO-Pc nanocomposites. The relaxation time τ, activation enthalpy ΔH and the entropy change ΔS of the prepared composites were calculated. The obtained data were correlated to the nature of doping metal oxide.
Theoretical Investigation of the H2O2-Induced Degradation Mechanism of Hydrated Nafion Membrane via Ether-Linkage Dissociation

A H2O2-induced degradation mechanism is presented for the hydrated Nafion membrane proceeding through the dissociation of the ether linkages of the side chains. Although the durability of proton-exchange membrane fuel cells clearly depends on the degradation rate of the membrane, typically Nafion, the degradation mechanism still has not been resolved. It has often been assumed that the principal mode of degradation involves OH• radicals; in contrast, we show here that a H2O2-induced degradation mechanism is more likely. On the basis of state-of-the-art theoretical calculations and detailed comparison with experimental results, we present such a mechanism for the hydrated Nafion membrane, proceeding through the dissociation of the ether linkage of the side chains, with a relatively low activation energy. In this mechanism, (H2O)λHO3S–CF2–CF2–O–O–H (λ is the hydration number) is obtained as a key degradation fragment. Possible subsequent decomposition-reaction mechanisms are also elucidated for this fragment. The calculated vibrational spectra for the intermediates and products proposed in these mechanisms were found to be consistent with the experimental IR spectra. Further consideration of this H2O2-mediated degradation mechanism could greatly facilitate the search for ways to combat membrane degradation.
Systems biological investigation of aerobic and anaerobic aromatic catabolism in the bacterium Aromatoleum aromaticum EbN1

Aromatische Verbindungen sind in unserer Umwelt weit verbreitet und ihre Mineralisierung ist Teil des globalen Kohlenstoffkreislaufes. Da zahlreiche naturliche Lebensraume nur uber eingeschrankten Sauerstoffeintrag verfugen, ist der anaerobe Aromatenabbau durch Bakterien okologisch besonders relevant. Aromatoleum aromaticum EbN1 ist der am besten charakterisierte Modellorganismus fur die Verstoffwechselung von Aromaten unter Sauerstofflimitierung. Allerdings basieren viele der fur den Organismus beschriebene Abbauwege ausschlieslich auf funktionellen Enzymvorhersagen, wahrend direkte metabolische Untersuchungen noch fehlen. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurde der aerobe und anaerobe Abbau von vier aromatischen Substraten in A. aromaticum EbN1 untersucht. Es wurden umfassende Metabolomanalysen mit kollaborativ gewonnen Transkriptom- und Proteomdaten kombiniert um ein systembiologisches Gesamtbild zu erhalten. Der anaerobe Abbau von 3-hydroxybenzoate uber 3-hydroxybenzoyl-CoA und 4-oxopimeloyl-CoA konnte durch die Verwendung einer neuen Analysemethode fur CoA-Ester erstmals auf Metabolomebene gezeigt werden. Der weitere Abbau findet uber 3-hydroxypimeloyl-CoA, analog zum unteren Teil des anaeroben Benzoyl-CoA Weges, statt. Auserdem widersprechen die Ergebnisse der vorhergesagten Dehydroxylierung von 4-hydroxybenzoyl-CoA durch die 4-hydroxybenzoyl-CoA reductase wahrend des aeroben und anaeroben HPP-Abbaus. Statt dessen konnte die Benzoyl-CoA reductase beteiligt sein, was neue Einsichten in die radikalische anaerobe Reduktion ermoglichen wurde. Bemerkenswert war die Ansammlung von mutmaslichen Osmolyten, die wahrend des anaeroben Benzoatabbau mit einer hohen intrazellularen Benzoatkonzentration korrelierte. Weder die Biosynthese der Substanzen, noch ihre Rolle in der Zellantwort auf Biozide war bisher bekannt. Diese Ergebnisse konnen zukunftig relevant sein fur die biotechnologische Produktion von Glucosiden und Anwendungen zur Bioremediation. Insgesamt wurde in dieser Arbeit ein erster systembiologischer Blick auf das Netzwerk der aromatischen Abbauwege gezeigt, die Anpassung an den Aromatenabbau in Sedimenten beschrieben und neue Erkenntnisse zu einzelnen Abbauwegen gewonnen. Auserdem wurde erstmals die Akkumulation von Osmolyten wahrend dem anaeroben Benzoatabbaus beschrieben.
The fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae); first report of new invasive pest in maize fields of Gujarat, India

A study was conducted to identify the new invasive pest infesting maize in Gujarat, India. During the survey conducted in the month of September 2018, sweet corn field in the Anklav village of Anand district found infested with new invasive pest. Larvae were collected and brought to the laboratory of Department of Entomology, B. A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University, Anand for identification and further study. Based on morphological and molecular characterization, the pest is identified as fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) and it is the first confirmed report of occurrence of new invasive pest in maize fields of Gujarat, India.
Burned bones tell their own stories: A review of methodological approaches to assess heat-induced diagenesis

ABSTRACT One of the biggest struggles of biological anthropology is to estimate the biological profile from burned human skeletal remains. Bioanthropological methods are seriously compromised due to bone heat-induced alterations in shape and size. Therefore, it is urgent to improve our ability to estimate sex, age at death, stature, and ancestrality, to recognize peri mortem traumas and differentiate them from fractures due to fire, and to determine what was the intensity of burning, namely maximum temperature and heat exposure length. This review focuses on different methodologies to assess heat prompted changes in bone submicrostructure. Some of these are extensively used in burned bones research, namely infrared and Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction, while others such as neutron spectroscopy and diffraction are rarely applied to bone samples although their contribution may be crucial for establishing new bioanthropological methods for a reliable examination of burned victims.
The Influence of the Hydrophobic Component Content on the Properties of Hybrid Polymer-Inorganic Membranes

Hybrid polymer-inorganic membranes with varied composition of polymeric matrix were synthesized by UV-curing of a mixture of acrylic monomers with simultaneous formation of inorganic network via sol-gel reaction of tetraethoxysilane. Composition of polymeric counterpart was varied by changing the ratio of hydrophilic and hydrophobic monomers, whereas the content of inorganic counterpart was maintained constant. Morphology, thermal behavior and water uptake of membranes were investigated.
Natural Light‐Scattering Nanoparticles Enable Visible through Short‐Wave Infrared Color Modulation

Color is ubiquitous in nature; however, the ability to rapidly change color in response to environmental cues is unique to few biological systems. Cephalopods are one such system; they employ a sophisticated ensemble of optical organs that assist in adaptive coloration in different environments. While these animals have been a subject of research for decades, the photophysics underlying their color modulation is still not well understood. This is especially true in the context of their pigmentary chromatophore organs, which are considered one of the active elements of coloration. This paper describes diffuse and specular scattering originating in materials made from the nanoparticles that populate the chromatophore organs and shows for the first time how a film as few as two particle layers thick (≈1 µm) contributes to over 20% forward scattering in the visible, near‐infrared, and short‐wave infrared (SWIR) regions. The intensity of scattered light across this broad spectrum increases when films or fibers containing these nanoparticles are placed above a back‐reflecting material, suggesting a tunable feature that can be controlled under different conditions. This nano‐enhanced visible through SWIR scattering may lead to better spectral purity of reflected and back‐scattered light, illustrating an important role in color and future color‐changing materials.
Synthesis of 1-Deoxynojirimycin: Exploration of Optimised Conditions for Reductive Amidation and Separation of Epimers

1-Deoxynojirimycin (DNJ), which has importance with respect to sugar processing enzymes, is a synthetic target for chemists. A key step in the synthesis of DNJ is the preparation of 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-benzyl-D-glucono-δ-lactam. By varying reaction parameters such as temperature, solvent and reducing reagent, improvements on previous methods are described. A novel approach for the synthesis of 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-benzyl-5-dehydro-5-deoxo-D-gluconamide has been developed by using PCC as an oxidising agent. Separation of epimers permitted DNJ to be obtained in 85% yield after reduction and hydrogenolysis steps.
Common Bean Productivity Following Diverse Boron Applications on Soil

ABSTRACT Aspects related to micronutrients management are still poorly studied and need to be clarified to guarantee sustainable production. In this way, the study aimed to evaluate boron (B) fertilization effects on nutrition and production of common beans. The parameters measured were relative chlorophyll index, dry mass, boron transport, utilization and absorption efficiencies, B content, and B accumulation in plant tissues. The study showed that the dry mass production was negatively affected by B application, with linear dry mass decrease following the increase of B doses. Accordingly, it was found that the common bean cultivar Esplendor presented high absorption capacity of boron, and can reach 175 mg kg−1. However, the high absorption caused phytotoxicity and reduced dry matter production by up to 30%, reflecting the efficiency of boron use by the plant, which was reduced in up to 75%.
Midbond basis functions for weakly bound complexes

ABSTRACT Weakly bound systems present a difficult problem for conventional atom-centred basis sets due to large separations, necessitating the use of large, computationally expensive bases. This can be remedied by placing a small number of functions in the region between molecules in the complex. We present compact sets of optimised midbond functions for a range of complexes involving noble gases, alkali metals and small molecules for use in high accuracy coupled -cluster calculations, along with a more robust procedure for their optimisation. It is shown that excellent results are possible with double-zeta quality orbital basis sets when a few midbond functions are added, improving both the interaction energy and the equilibrium bond lengths of a series of noble gas dimers by 47% and 8%, respectively. When used in conjunction with explicitly correlated methods, near complete basis set limit accuracy is readily achievable at a fraction of the cost that using a large basis would entail. General purpose auxiliary sets are developed to allow explicitly correlated midbond function studies to be carried out, making it feasible to perform very high accuracy calculations on weakly bound complexes.
High-Performance Flexible All-Solid-State Asymmetric Supercapacitors Based on Vertically Aligned CuSe@Co(OH)2 Nanosheet Arrays

The developments of electrode active materials provide the opportunities for next-generation energy storage devices. The arrangement of electrode materials on the substrate has recently emerged as a promising strategy for preparing high-performance supercapacitors. Herein, we demonstrate a novel vertically aligned CuSe@Co(OH)2 nanosheet arrays electrode for supercapacitor application. The materials are thoroughly characterized by structural and spectroscopic techniques. Electrochemical performance of CuSe@Co(OH)2 nanosheet arrays are investigated in detail, which exhibit a specific capacitance as much as 1180 F g–1 at a current density of 1 A g–1. A flexible asymmetric all-solid-state supercapacitor is fabricated using CuSe@Co(OH)2 nanosheet arrays as the positive electrode and activated carbon as the negative electrode. The device delivers a volumetric capacitance of 441.4 mF cm–3 with maximum energy density and maximum power density is 0.17 and 62.1 mW cm–3, as well as robust cycling stability (∼80.4% c.
The importance of key attenuation factors for microbial and chemical contaminants during managed aquifer recharge: A review

ABSTRACT There is increasing interest worldwide to utilize unconventional water resources such as reclaimed water, urban stormwater, or impaired surface water to augment drinking water supplies. Given the presence of traditional and emerging microbial and chemical contaminants (e.g., pathogens, trace organic chemicals, nutrients, trace metals) in these waters, efficient and reliable treatment processes are needed to assure a product water quality that is protective of public health. Natural treatment processes such as managed aquifer recharge (MAR) combine the benefits of efficient biological treatment for these contaminants with a low carbon footprint and a residual free operation. The drawbacks of MAR are the rather large space requirements and a lack of process understanding that can guide more efficient design and operation of these facilities. Among appropriate design and operational parameters as well as geochemical and hydrological conditions, retention time has been identified as a key parameter to achieve attenuation of microbial and chemical contaminants during MAR. Shorter retention time can result in significantly reduced footprints and thus facilitate the integration of MAR into urban and peri-urban water infrastructure. However, different minimum retention times are required to achieve reliable removal of microbial and chemical contaminants.
Analysis of algorithms for sparse signal representation

The topic of this thesis is sparse representations of signals. The thesis follows mainly the book Sparse and redundant representations by Michael Elad and is divided into five parts. The first part, consisting of chapter one, introduces the problem (P0) and related and describes the reason why is well founded. The second part, consisting of chapter two, presents the conditions under which the solution to the problem (P0), for the special two-orthogonal and general case, exhibits uniqueness and optimality. In doing so two special measures of a matrix A are introduced: the spark and the mutual-coherence. The third part, consisting of chapters three and four, describes six diferent algorithms for solving (P0) which are divided into two main categories: greedy and convex relaxational. Chapter four deals with theoretical guarantees of those algorithms. The fourth part, consisting of chapter five, introduces the (P 0) problem which is a more robust version of (P0) and thus better for applications. For this new problem uniqueness (which cannot be claimed) is replaced by stability of the solution. The elegant result of the stability of (P 0) is proved using the subtle concept of Restricted Isometry Property of a matrix. The fifth part, consisting of chapter six, introduces the generative model named Sparseland and presents a powerful application of a version of (P 0) to image inpainting. The algorithm used is called K-SVD and it achieved State-of-the-art performance by the time of first publication in 2006. The experiments are presented in the last section showing excellent results and great potential for future work.
Molecular Aggregation States and Physical Properties of Syndiotactic Polystyrene/Hydrogenated Polyisoprene Multiblock Copolymers with Crystalline Hard Domain

Molecular aggregation structure and mechanical as well as thermal properties of novel well-defined multiblock copolymers consisting of crystalline syndiotactic polystyrene (sPS) and rubbery hydrogenated polyisoprene (hPIp) were investigated. The morphology and crystalline ordered structure of the multiblock copolymer films prepared by solvent casting from 1,2-dichlorobenzene solution depended on the volume fraction of sPS (VFsPS) and number of blocks. The multiblock copolymer films exhibited ordered morphology with low crystallinity. The crystallinity of the sPS reduced with decreasing the VFsPS. The pentablock copolymer produced more ordered morphology and less crystallinity than the triblock copolymers. The anisotropic orientation and mechanical stability of the δ form sPS crystals in the spherical sPS domains during uniaxial stretching were demonstrated. Tensile testing and dynamic mechanical analysis indicated that these multiblock copolymer films with appropriate sPS fraction are strong, tough, and e.