Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synthesis of Li and Mn-Rich Layered Oxides as Concentration-Gradients for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Li and Mn-rich layered oxides, i.e. Li1+xM1-xO2 (M = Mn, Ni and Co), are attractive positive electrode materials for Li-ion batteries due to their promising high specific capacities. Unfortunately, these materials provide an energy-density fading due to a continuous voltage decay resulting from chemical instability of their surface structure upon cycling. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the main insights got from syntheses of materials targeted to be concentration-gradients of global compositions Li1+x(Ni0.29Mn0.53Co0.18)1-xO2 with: (i) Li and Mn-rich layered oxides in the core to deliver high capacity, and (ii) layered oxides enriched in Ni and in Co moving to the surface of the spherical aggregates to promote improved chemical and thermal stability for the electrode material. Concentration-gradient, core-shell or re-homogenized materials were obtained depending on the temperature and excess of lithium used for the high temperature thermal treatment (i.e. the second step of the synthesis). Despite complex to master, the engineering of layered oxide materials was shown to be a track to follow to optimize the performance of an electrode material.
Hoch selektive Polyolefin-Oberflächenfunktionalisierung in bromenthaltenden Niederdruckplasmen: Untersuchungen zur Pfropfung, Umfunktionalisierung und Verbesserung der Hafteigenschaften in Metall-Polymer-Verbunden

Selektiv funktionalisierte Oberflachen von Polyolefinen sind fur verschiedenste Einsatzgebiete wie Adhasions-, Chemie-, Medizin- und Biotechnik von grosem Interesse. Eine Moglichkeit Polymeroberflachen effizient zu funktionalisieren ist, diese durch eine plasmaphysikalisch angeregte Gasphase unter Einsatz geeigneter Prakursoren chemisch zu modifizieren. Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde die Wirkung bromhaltiger Gasphasenplasmen, die Bromoform, Allybromid oder tert-Butylbromid enthielten, auf Polyethylen (PE) und Polypropylen (PP) untersucht. Uberraschenderweise wurde hierbei eine hochselektive und hochdichte monosortige Br-Funktionalisierung beobachtet. Um die fur diese hohe Selektivitat verantwortlichen Prozesse zu untersuchen, wurden analoge halogenhaltige Plasmen, die Tetrafluormethan, Fluoroform, Chloroform, Bromoform und Diiodmethan enthielten, auf ihre chemische Selektivitat, ihre Funktionalisierungseffizienz und ihr Ionisationspotential und Elektronentemperatur charakterisiert. Es wurde untersucht, ob die Halogenidfunktionalitat als CX oder als C-CXn-Gruppe an der Oberflache gebildet wird. Fur die Bewertung der Langzeitstabilitat der Funktionalisierung wurde die Nachoxidation der plasmamodifizierten Polymeroberflachen kontrolliert. Im Anschluss wurde die Umsetzbarkeit mit systematisch variierten organischen Verbindungen bestimmt. Ziel hierbei war zu untersuchen, wie gut sich die Bromidfunktionalitat als universelle Abgangsgruppe zur Kopplung flexibilisierender Spacer- Molekule in der Metall-Polymer-Grenzflache eignet. Es wurden dazu Kopplungsreaktionen mit unterschiedlich langen und steifen endstandigen Alkohol-, Amin- und Glykol- Verbindungen durchgefuhrt. Daruber hinaus wurden Umfunktionalisierungsreaktionen an bromierten Oberflachen durchgefuhrt. Auf diese Weise konnte gezeigt werden, dass es moglich ist, die C-Br- Funktionalitat gegen eine andere auszutauschen. Spezielles Augenmerk wurde auf die Umfunktionalisierung zu primaren Aminogruppen gelegt. Diese wurden uber einfache Substitutionsreaktionen mit konzentriertem oder verflussigtem Ammoniak erzeugt. Auch oberflachengebundene Hydroxylgruppen konnten erzeugt werden. Dazu wurden Bromidfunktionen durch Substitution mit Kalium- und Natriumhydroxid in geeigneten Losungsmitteln umgesetzt. Polypropylenoberflachen, die mit verschiedenen Spacern ausgerustet worden waren, wurden im Vakuum mit dunnen Filmen aus Aluminium und Kupfer bedampft. Die Haftfestigkeit dieser Beschichtung wurde anschliesend durch Schalfestigkeitsmessungen untersucht.
Recent progress in single-atom electrocatalysts: concept, synthesis, and applications in clean energy conversion

Electrochemical energy plays a key role in direct conversion into value-added products by using renewable electricity. Single-atom catalysts (SACs) can maximize the efficiency of metal-atom utilization, thus achieving high activity, stability, and selectivity in electrocatalytic reactions. SACs can overcome some limitations of bulk materials in electrocatalytic applications. In this review, we introduce SACs consisting of various single metal atoms, including noble and transition metals, anchored on various supports, such as metals, metal oxides, porous carbon, graphene, and g-C3N4. These catalysts possessed various binding modes between the single atoms and anchoring sites. We also review and highlight novel and promising methods to obtain SACs. Such methods include wet chemistry, metal etching, electrodeposition, and metal–organic-framework-derived methods. We also focused on the electrocatalytic applications of SACs in representative electrochemical applications such as oxygen reduction, hydrogen evolution, oxygen evolution, carbon dioxide reduction, and nitrogen reduction reactions. Significantly, the electrocatalytic performance can be tuned by engineering the structure of SACs in terms of binding mode, coordination number, and dispersion tendencies. Finally, we provide perspectives on the design of SACs for future applications in various electrocatalytic processes in energy conversion.
Non-covalent functionalization of CNTs with polycarbazole: a chemiresistive humidity sensor with tunable chemo-electric attributes at room temperature

This article describes the non-covalent functionalization of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with polycarbazole (PCz) via an in situ chemical oxidative polymerization method and subsequent fabrication of resistive humidity sensors. The morphological and optical characterizations have been performed using electron microscopy and UV-visible spectroscopy. The performance of the CNT–PCz sensors has been studied for the resistive detection of humidity ranging from 23% RH to 97% RH. The optimum level of CNT loading is assessed by varying the concentration of the nanotubes in the PCz matrix and the highest response (%) was obtained for 1 wt% MWCNT loaded PCz. The observed fast response (13–25 s) and recovery time (22–65 s) along with a considerable response (%) towards humidity render the nanocomposite as a suitable candidate for humidity sensing applications. Interestingly, the humidity sensing properties can be easily switched by varying the CNT concentration in the nanocomposites. Plausible mechanisms are proposed to describe this tunable chemo-electric humidity sensing behavior of the CNT–PCz composites. Further, effort has been made to explain the role of CNTs and polycarbazole in the detection of humidity.
Research of Flavour Characteristics of Beer with Addition of Pine Extract

The object of research is a light beer made according to the classical recipe (control) and beer «Emerald», made according to the classical recipe with the addition of pine extract. One of the most problematic places is that the expansion of the assortment of craft beer leads to the emergence of products with the addition of numerous synthetic components and flavors. The tasting method for evaluating the beverage is rather subjective, since it can’t fully characterize the effect of the qualitative composition and the quantitative content of the components of the raw materials used. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the determination of the total amount of substances that are formed during the fermentation of beer wort and form the natural taste and aroma of the finished product. To carry out the experimental studies, malt barley light, hop granules, brewer's yeast of bottom fermentation were used as the main raw material. Additional raw materials are selected pine needles. As methods of research, the method of high-performance gas chromatography and an adapted method for determining the number of fragrance are used. The concentration of flavoring substances is determined: beer control has 32 components, «Emerald» – 38, their calculations are carried out. It is determined that by-products of alcoholic fermentation refer to the factors that determine the taste and aroma of beer. To fully assess the weight of the aroma of the developed beer, the total content of the substances responsible for the flavor of the beverage is determined. It is found that the beer «Emerald» has a flavor number of 2740 ml of Na 2 S 2 O 3 /100 ml, control – 2170 ml of Na 2 S 2 O 3 /100 ml. This fully characterizes the effect on the finished product of the quantitative content of aroma-making additional raw materials. The positive effect of the developed beer «Emerald» is achieved due to: natural components, improved organoleptic parameters of the finished beverage, consumer's curiosity to the new product. Also, the high antioxidant properties of additional raw materials contribute to reducing the negative impact of alcohol on the human body. Due to the partial replacement of hops, a lower price for the product was obtained in comparison with the analog product and a decrease in the negative influence of hop on the human body.
Photodegradation behavior of ZnO nanorods on various types of organic dyes

Abstract In this paper, the effectiveness of ZnO nanorods in degrading various types of organic dyes under UV irradiation was studied. ZnO nanorods were synthesized by solution precipitation method using zinc nitrate tetrahydrate and hexamethylenetetramine as precursors. The nanorods were hexagonal wurtzite ZnO as shown in XRD analysis. The sample displayed strong UV absorption attributed to its wide energy bandgap, i.e. 3.37 eV. The room temperature PL spectrum showed low UV emission with relatively strong visible emission, indicating the presence of large amount of defects in the ZnO nanorods. Three organic dyes, i.e. RhB, MB and MO, were degraded by ZnO nanorods via cycloreversion. The removal efficiencies of ZnO nanorods were 99.3, 96.6 and 74.1% for RhB, MB and MO dyes, respectively after 30 min of UV light (λ = 352 nm) irradiation. The photodegradation of RhB, MB and MO by ZnO nanorods followed the pseudo first-order kinetic reaction. It was proposed that the variation of photodegradation efficiencies by ZnO nanorods was due to the different types of bonding in various organic dyes.
Humidity sensing properties of Al-doped zinc oxide coating films

Humidity sensor was fabricated using Al-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) coating films through spin-coating at room temperature. The sensing mechanism was discussed based on their nanostructures, such as surface area and porous nanostructures. Surface area and water adsorption are an important component in the low humidity, while at high humidity, porous nanostructures and capillary condensation become important. The results showed that the sensitivity of the Al-doped ZnO coating improved compared to that of the Al-doped ZnO nanorod arrays, with values of 7.38 at 40% to 90%RH (Relative humidity). All these results indicated that Al-doped ZnO coating had high potential for humidity-sensor applications.Humidity sensor was fabricated using Al-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) coating films through spin-coating at room temperature. The sensing mechanism was discussed based on their nanostructures, such as surface area and porous nanostructures. Surface area and water adsorption are an important component in the low humidity, while at high humidity, porous nanostructures and capillary condensation become important. The results showed that the sensitivity of the Al-doped ZnO coating improved compared to that of the Al-doped ZnO nanorod arrays, with values of 7.38 at 40% to 90%RH (Relative humidity). All these results indicated that Al-doped ZnO coating had high potential for humidity-sensor applications.
COMSOL Multiphysics Modeling of Chloride Binding in Diffusive Transport of Chlorides in Concrete

One of the most revealing causes of deterioration leading to durability loss in concrete structures is premature time-tocorrosion ignition due to chloride induced corrosion associated with diffusive transport of chloride in concrete. To permit a more realistic modeling of the diffusive transport of chloride in concrete, chloride binding capacity model based on experimental isotherm describing the relation between total, bound, and free chlorides have to be considered. The aim of this work is to demonstrate the capability of using COMSOL Multiphysics modeling to provide insight regarding a more realistic consideration of chloride penetration behavior in concrete in view of chloride binding. Simulations of the problem in COMSOL allow main process of the chloride binding to be closely captured in the light of its nonlinear concentration dependence and influence on evolution of chloride diffusivity governing the transport problem. Good agreement of the model results with experimental data was established to provide a basis for reasonable service life prediction in view of the time-to-corrosion initiation paradigm.
A Facile Synthesis of Anomeric Benzyl Protected Man-Β(1,4)GlcNAc Scaffold as a Building Block for a Rapid Expansion of Oligosaccharide Molecular Diversity

A facile and efficient strategy for accessing Man-β(1,4)GlcNAc core was investigated. Anomeric benzyl protected acceptor derived from N-glycosamine hydrochloride was glycosylated with orthogonally protected thioglycoside to afford the gluc-β(1,4)GlcNAc scaffold which was epimerized via triflation to obtain the Man-β(1,4)GlcNAc derivative. The disaccharide Man-β(1,4)GlcNAc scaffold could be used as the basic building block for the divergent synthesis of various oligosaccharide structures for detailed biological activity investigation of glycans. The compounds were characterized by NMR, MS and Infra-red (IR) spectroscopy.
3-Benzoyl-4-methyl-2-oxo-2H-chromen-7-yl acetate

In the title compound, C19H14O5, the dihedral angle between the coumarin ring system (r.m.s. deviation = 0.026 A) and the pendant benzoyl group is 81.91 (7)°. In the crystal, weak C—H⋯O inter­actions link the mol­ecules into a three-dimensional network.
Column Studies for the Simultaneous Removal of Phenol, Ammonia and Thiocyanate by the Adsorption with Steel Slag

: Continuous adsorption experiments are carried out in a fixed-bed to evaluate the performance of the steel slag for the removal of phenol, ammonia and thiocyanate. The effect bed height and flow rate on the breakthrough curve is studied. The study reveals, phenol adsorbed per gram of the steel slag is 0.44 to 1.23 mg/g, ammonia adsorbed per gram of steel slag is 0.85 to 1.96 mg/g and thiocyanate adsorbed per gram of the steel slag is 0.07 to 0.32 mg/g of steel slag. Kinetic models like Thomas and Yoon Nelson Model were applied to the studies. Thomas and Yoon Nelson Model fit well when the mass of adsorbent was less for removal of ammonia and phenol. However, in case of removal of thiocyanate, Thomas and Yoon Nelson Model fits well if the mass of adsorbent is high.
Aminoacyl-tRNA synthétases et tRNA : études fonctionnelles, structurales et génétiques d'une famille de molécules essentielles pour l'expression du code génétique.

Depuis 1991, annee de mon recrutement au CNRS, mon activite de recherche est centree sur l'etude d'une famille d'enzymes intervenant dans la biosynthese proteique : les aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases. Mon travail s'est articule autour de l'etude de leur organisation fonctionnelle et de la comprehension des bases moleculaires de la reconnaissance specifique entre ces enzymes et leurs substrats. Des approches multidisciplinaires (biologie moleculaire, biochimie, cristallographie aux rayons X, enzymologie et genetique) ont ete mises en œuvre pour une exploration globale de ces problemes. Nous avons pu progresser dans la connaissance de deux enzymes modeles : l'aspartyl-tRNA synthetase et l'arginyl-tRNA synthetase, deux enzymes appartenant respectivement a la classe II et a la classe I des aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases. Nous avons localise les sites de fixation des differents substrats, propose des mecanismes catalytiques et selectionne in vivo des variants d'aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases et de tRNAs aux proprietes de reconnaissance modifiees.
Inorganic-acid-induced structures of cobalt(II) and copper(II) complexes based on 2,4,5-tri(4-pyridyl)-imidazole ligand

ABSTRACT Four complexes based on 2,4,5-tri(4-pyridyl)-imidazole (Htpim), such as [Co(Htpim)2(SO4)(H2O)]n (1), [Co(tpim)2(H2O)2]n (2), [Cu(Htpim)2(SO4)]n (3), and [Cu2(Htpim)(tpim)(NO3)3(DMAC)]n (4), have been synthesized and characterized. Different structures, including two similar 1D linear chains in 1 and 2, a 2D 44 layer in 3, and a 2D double layer {4.62}2{42.64. 82.102}{62.8} network in 4, were attributed to different kinds and quantities of inorganic acids under the reaction condition. Hereinto, inorganic acid was not only used to adjust the pH value of the reaction system, but also to act as a coordination component in 1, 3, and 4. Moreover, thermal stabilities and luminescent properties of 1–4 were also investigated.
Continual Backprop: Stochastic Gradient Descent with Persistent Randomness

The Backprop algorithm for learning in neural networks utilizes two mechanisms: first, stochastic gradient descent and second, initialization with small random weights, where the latter is essential to the effectiveness of the former. We show that in continual learning setups, Backprop performs well initially, but over time its performance degrades. Stochastic gradient descent alone is insufficient to learn continually; the initial randomness enables only initial learning but not continual learning. To the best of our knowledge, ours is the first result showing this degradation in Backprop's ability to learn. To address this degradation in Backprop's plasticity, we propose an algorithm that continually injects random features alongside gradient descent using a new generate-and-test process. We call this the \textit{Continual Backprop} algorithm. We show that, unlike Backprop, Continual Backprop is able to continually adapt in both supervised and reinforcement learning (RL) problems. Continual Backprop has the same computational complexity as Backprop and can be seen as a natural extension of Backprop for continual learning.
ST-PCNN: Spatio-Temporal Physics-Coupled Neural Networks for Dynamics Forecasting

Ocean current, fluid mechanics, and many other physical systems with spatio-temporal dynamics are essential components of the universe. One key characteristic of such systems is that they can be represented by certain physics laws, such as ordinary/partial differential equations (ODEs/PDEs), irrespective of time or location. Physics-informed machine learning has recently emerged to learn physics from data for accurate prediction, but they often lack a mechanism to leverage localized spatial and temporal correlation or rely on hard-coded physics parameters. In this paper, we advocate a physics-coupled neural network model to learn parameters governing the physics of the system, and further couple the learned physics to assist the learning of recurring dynamics. Here a spatio-temporal physics-coupled neural network (ST-PCNN) model is proposed to achieve three goals: (1) learning the underlying physics parameters, (2) transition of local information between spatio-temporal regions, and (3) forecasting future values for the dynamical system. The physics-coupled learning ensures that the proposed model can be tremendously improved by using learned physics parameters, and can achieve useful long-range forecasting (e.g., more than two weeks). Experiments using simulated wave propagation and field-collected ocean current data validate that ST-PCNN outperforms typical deep learning models and existing physics-informed models.
Sentiment Analysis of the COVID-related r/Depression Posts

Reddit.com is a popular social media platform among young people. Reddit users share their stories to seek support from other users, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Messages posted on Reddit and their content have provided researchers with opportunity to analyze public concerns. In this study, we analyzed sentiments of COVID-related messages posted on r/Depression. Our study poses the following questions: a) What are the common topics that the Reddit users discuss? b) Can we use these topics to classify sentiments of the posts? c) What matters concern people more during the pandemic? Key Words: Sentiment Classification, Depression, COVID-19, Reddit, LDA, BERT
Modal-Adaptive Gated Recoding Network for RGB-D Salient Object Detection

The multi-modal salient object detection model based on RGB-D information has better robustness in the real world. However, it remains nontrivial to better adaptively balance multi-modal information in the feature fusion phase. In this letter, we propose a novel gated recoding network (GRNet) to evaluate the information validity of the two modes and balance their influence. Our framework is divided into three phases: perception phase, recoding mixing phase, and integration phase. Specifically, a perception encoder is adopted to extract multi-level single-modal features, which lays the foundation for multi-modal semantic comparative analysis. Then, a modal-adaptive gate unit (MGU) is proposed to suppress the invalid information and transfer the effective modal features to the recoding mixer and the hybrid branch decoder. The recoding mixer is responsible for recoding and mixing the balanced multi-modal information. Finally, the hybrid branch decoder completes the multi-level feature integration under the guidance of an optional edge guidance stream (OEGS). Experiments on 8 popular benchmarks verify that our framework has better overall performance than the other 28 state-of-the-art algorithms.
Detecting socially interacting groups using f-formation: A survey of taxonomy, methods, datasets, applications, challenges, and future research directions

Robots in our daily surroundings are increasing day by day. Their usability and acceptability largely depend on their explicit and implicit interaction capability with fellow human beings. As a result, social behavior is one of the most sought-after qualities that a robot can possess. However, there is no specific aspect and/or feature that defines socially acceptable behavior and it largely depends on the situation, application, and society. In this article, we investigate one such social behavior for collocated robots. Imagine a group of people is interacting with each other and we want to join the group. We as human beings do it in a socially acceptable manner, i.e., within the group, we do position ourselves in such a way that we can participate in the group activity without disturbing/obstructing anybody. To possess such a quality, first, a robot needs to determine the formation of the group and then determine a position for itself, which we humans do implicitly. The theory of f-formation can be utilized for this purpose. As the types of formations can be very diverse, detecting the social groups is not a trivial task. In this article, we provide a comprehensive survey of the existing work on social interaction and group detection using f-formation for robotics and other applications. We also put forward a novel holistic survey framework combining all the possible concerns and modules relevant to this problem. We define taxonomies based on methods, camera views, datasets, detection capabilities and scale, evaluation approaches, and application areas. We discuss certain open challenges and limitations in current literature along with possible future research directions based on this framework. In particular, we discuss the existing methods/techniques and their relative merits and demerits, applications, and provide a set of unsolved but relevant problems in this domain.