batterydata/paper-abstracts huggingface dataset:
A novel fullerene-functionalised terthiophene monomer, N-methyl-2-(2-[2,2′;5′,2″-terthiophen-3′-yl]ethenyl)fullero [3,4]pyrrolidine (TTh–BB), has been successfully electropolymerised to form the homopolymer, P(TTh–BB). The polymer has been characterised using cyclic voltammetry (CV), UV-Vis spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Raman spectroscopy. Preliminary studies into the use of this novel polymer as a cathode material in a lithium battery have been carried out here.
We explored the development of cognitive flexibility in typically developing 6-, 8-, and 10-year-olds and adults by modifying a common cognitive flexibility task, the Flexible Item Selection Task (FIST). Although performance on the standard FIST reached ceiling by 8years, FIST performance on other variations continued to improve until 10years of age. Within a detailed task analysis, we also explored working memory storage and processing components of executive function and how these contribute to the development of cognitive flexibility. The findings reinforce the notion that cognitive flexibility is a multifaceted construct but that the development of working memory contributes in part to age-related change in this ability.
Objectives We investigated the effect of elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and exposure to Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) on the severity of cognitive impairment in individuals with schizophrenia. Methods We measured the levels of CRP and of antibodies to HSV-1 in serum samples from 588 individuals with schizophrenia by enzyme immunoassay tests. Cognitive functioning was measured with the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) and psychiatric symptoms with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). The effects of HSV1 and CRP on cognitive functioning were analyzed with linear and logistic regression analyses adjusting for demographic and clinical variables. Results The individuals with elevated CRP levels and HSV-1 seropositivity had lower RBANS cognitive scores. The strongest effect was found in individuals who had both serological evidence of HSV-1 exposure and elevated levels of CRP. These individuals had odds of 2.35 to have an RBANS Total score<=60 as compared to individuals who were HSV-1 seronegative and who did not have elevated levels of CRP (p=.002). The risks of decreased cognitive functioning associated with HSV-1 exposure and elevated levels of CRP were independent and additive. There was no effect of HSV-1 exposure and CRP levels on the severity of symptoms as measured by the PANSS (all p>.5). Conclusions Elevated levels of CRP and exposure to HSV-1 are associated with the severity of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia. These findings indicate that infection and inflammation may play a major role in the cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia.
Persons with intellectual disability (ID) have been found to perform more poorly than their mental age would suggest in the visuo-spatial problem solving task Tower of Hanoi (TOH). Inefficient performance has been assumed to be related to inability to use sophisticated problem solving strategies because of restricted working memory capacity. In the present study, the TOH performance of adult persons with ID was found to be equal to that of fluid-intelligence-matched general children. However, persons with ID violated the rules of the TOH more often, and needed more trials to solve the TOH problems than the children did. Visuo-spatial and executive working memory tasks were significantly connected to the TOH performance of persons with ID, whereas phonological working memory tasks were not. Poor inhibition ability was related to the poor performance of subjects with ID in the TOH. We suggest that for persons with ID, TOH performance is determined by individual differences in fluid intelligence, controlled attention, and inhibition ability.
Currently it's getting a great accent on the quality of preuniversitary education, to simplify the individual study of students. Therefore the Physics teacher should look for more accessible ways for the students, in order to transmit the knowledge. There is a total disregard for the Physical discipline, at the high school level from the students from Technical Colleges and from the School of Arts and Jobs, and therefore I choose three modalities of implementation of quality, namely: -to conduct the majority of Physical hours in AEL, (The Mechanical Technical College, “Griviţa”, where I work, has a cabinet which is equipped with 25 (twenty-five) new performant computers, for the students to have their own computer) - to integrate the experiment in the Physical lessons. - and evaluation should be flexible, to free choice of student.
The Pechelbronn oilfield (Rhine Graben, France), where mining activity ended in the 1960s, has been used for waste disposal for twenty years. Since the wastes are varied, work is underway to identify the discharged materials and their derivatives, as well as to locate and quantify potential discharge sites. Two major goals were assigned to the present work. The first was to identify or refine the location of hidden structures that could facilitate gas emanation up to the surface, by studying soil gas concentrations (mainly 222Rn, CO2, CH4 and helium) and carbon isotope ratios in the CO2 phase. The second was devoted to examining, from a health and safety viewpoint, if the use of the oilfield as a waste disposal site might have led to enhanced or modified gas emanation throughout the area. It appeared that CO2 and 222Rn evolution in the whole area were similar, except near some of the faults and fractures that are known through surface mapping and underground observations. These 222Rn and CO2 anomalies made it possible to highlight more emissive zones that are either related to main faults or to secondary fractures acting as migration pathways. In that sense, the CO2 phase can be used to evaluate 222Rn activities distant from tectonic structures but can lead to erroneous evaluations near to gas migration pathways. Dumping of wastes, as well as oil residues, did not appear to have a strong influence on soil gaseous species and emanation. Similarly, enhanced gas migration due to underground galleries and exploitation wells has not been established. Carbon isotope ratios suggested a balance of biological phenomena, despite the high CO2 contents reached. Other monitored gaseous species (N2, Ar, H2 and alkanes), when detected, always showed amounts close to those found subsurface and/or in atmospheric gases.
The potential application of Al-incorporated mesoporous SiO2 (denoted as Al-MCM-41) in electrochemistry as a novel electrode material was investigated. The peak currents of K3[Fe(CN)6] remarkably increase and the peak potential separation obviously decreases at the mesoporous Al-MCM-41 modified carbon paste electrode (CPE). These phenomena suggest that the mesoporous Al-MCM-41 modified CPE possesses larger electrode area and electron transfer rate constant. Furthermore, the electrochemical behavior of epinephrine (EP) was investigated in different supporting electrolytes such as 0.01molL−1 HClO4 and pH 7.0 phosphate buffer. It is found that the mesoporous Al-MCM-41 modified CPE exhibits catalytic ability to the oxidation of EP due to remarkable peak current enhancement and negative shift of peak potential. The electrochemical oxidation mechanism was also discussed. Finally, a novel electrochemical method was proposed for the determination of EP, which used to determine EP in urine samples.
Polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based, microporous activated carbon fibers (ACFs) were investigated as electrode materials for electrochemical capacitors in KOH electrolyte solutions. PAN–ACFs were analyzed by using nitrogen adsorption data and the Dubinin–Raduskevich equation. The pore size distributions were narrow. As the micropore volume increased, the average micropore diameter decreased. Cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and charge–discharge profile analysis were used to investigate the penetrability of electrolyte ions into the carbon electrodes. The electrolyte ions in the carbon electrode with a large micropore diameter could be accessible easily even if the pore size distribution is narrow. However, the specific capacitance decreased in spite of the increase of the micropore volume.
The safety characteristics of recent commercial lithium ion cells are examined in relation to their use for cellular phones. These are prismatic cells with an aluminum cell housing (can) and a 500–600 mA h capacity. They have one of two types of 4-V class cathodes, lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2) or lithium manganese oxide (LiMn2O4). This report provides results of the safety tests that we performed on lithium ion cells and outlines our views regarding their safety.
We present a tactful and advanced architecture design of self-supported, binder-free 3D hierarchical iron fluoride flower-like array directly growing on Ti foil by a solvothermal approach. The probable growth mechanism of the 3D microflower is explored. The advantages of the porous 3D hierarchical nanostructure materials endow a stable capacity of 123mAhg−1 at 3C rate, and a good rate capability of 101mAhg−1 at a high current density of 2Ag−1 (10C). The superior electrochemical performance can be ascribed to the synergistic effect of charge transfer expressway, high specific surface area and porous hierarchical structure for electrolyte penetration deriving from the unique porous 3D hierarchical structure. The superior electrochemical performance combined with the unique structure of the FeF3·0.33H2O flower-like array demonstrates its great potential of being utilized as the cathode material in high rate battery application.
We report the use of a simple close-spaced vapor transport technique for the growth of high-quality epitaxial GaAs films using potentially inexpensive GaAs powders as precursors. The free carrier type and density (1016 to 1019 cm−3) of the films were adjusted by addition of Te or Zn powder to the GaAs source powder. We show using photoelectrochemical and electron beam-induced current analyses that the minority carrier diffusion lengths of the n- and p-GaAs films reached ∼3 μm and ∼8 μm, respectively. Hall mobilities approach those achieved for GaAs grown by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition, 1000–4200 cm2 V−1 s−1 for n-GaAs and 50–240 cm V−1 s−1 for p-GaAs depending on doping level. We conclude that the electronic quality of GaAs grown by close-spaced vapor transport is similar to that of GaAs made using conventional techniques and is thus sufficient for high-performance photovoltaic applications.
Three-dimensional LiNi0.5Mn0.5O2 (3D-LiNi0.5Mn0.5O2) nanostructures are in situ prepared using cryptomelane-type octahedral molecular sieve manganese dioxide (OMS-2) in the form of dendritic nanostructures as templates. The complete conversion of the OMS-2 precursor to layered α-NaFeO2-type LiNi0.5Mn0.5O2 and the retention of the 3D dendritic nanostructures have been confirmed by XRD, FE-SEM, TEM, and HR-TEM. The as-synthesized nanostructured positive electrode exhibits a significant improvement in rate performance and cycling reversibility due to its unique nanostructures composed of single-crystalline LiNi0.5Mn0.5O2 nanorods. And the influence of the assembly mode of nanosize LiNi0.5Mn0.5O2 positive electrode material to its electrochemical performances has been investigated. The battery based on 3D-LiNi0.5Mn0.5O2 retains a discharge capacity of 151.6mAhg−1 (93% of the first discharge capacity) after 50 cycles. A specific discharge capacity of 141.8mAhg−1 was retained at a rate of 3.2C, which is about 80% of the capacity at a rate of 0.2C.
Improving the charge capacity, electrochemical reversibility and stability of anode materials are main challenges for the development of Ni-based rechargeable batteries and devices. The combination of cobalt, as additive, and electrode material nanostructuration revealed a very promising approach for this purpose. The new α-NiCo mixed hydroxide based electrodes exhibited high specific charge/discharge capacity (355–714 C g−1) and outstanding structural stability, withstanding up to 700 redox cycles without any significant phase transformation, as confirmed by cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance and X-ray diffractometry. In short, the nanostructured α-NiCo mixed hydroxide materials possess superior electrochemical properties and stability, being strong candidates for application in high performance batteries and devices.
Beef cows sometimes are pastured close to oil- and gas-production and processing facilities. We measured the health and productivity of cow–calf herds with differing exposure to sour-natural-gas processing facilities in western Canada. In seven cow–calf herds, the numbers of eligible mature females included in the study for the breeding seasons beginning in 1993, 1994, and 1995 were 1177, 1251, and 1236, respectively. Outcomes included pregnancy status, calving interval, and the occurrence of twins, abortions, stillbirths, and neonatal mortality. Information also was collected on other risk factors known to influence beef-herd health and productivity. Monthly measurements from a network of passive air-monitoring devices were used to estimate exposure. Total sulfation and H2S deposition were used as markers for the complex mixture of compounds found in emissions from sour-gas processing plants and sour flares. Most herds were managed in multiple pasture groups. Cumulative exposure assessments were made from records of individual-animal movements between pastures. Generalized estimating equations were used to evaluate the association between exposure and outcome and to adjust for potential confounders and clustering of binomial outcomes within herd. No consistent associations were found between either total sulfation or H2S deposition and productivity parameters across the cow–calf production cycles. There were, however, five examples of significant associations between increasing cumulative exposure to total sulfation and decreased productivity in the 18 models examined.
Thermodynamically consistent transport theory is used to compare 3D images of real anode microstructures from lithium-ion batteries to virtual ones created by a parametric stochastic 3D microstructure model. Half-cell simulations in 3D with spatially resolved microstructures at different applied currents show that for low currents the deviations between various electrochemical quantities like current density or overpotential are negligibly small. For larger currents small differences become more pronounced. Qualitative and quantitative differences of these features are discussed with respect to the microstructure and it is shown that the real and virtual structures behave similar during electrochemical simulations. Extensions of the stochastic microstructure model, which overcome small differences in electrochemical behavior, are proposed.
To ascertain whether intoxication at the time of a crime affects a witness’s credibility with mock jurors, 240 jury eligible individuals completed an online questionnaire rating the convincingness, confidence, competence, honesty, believability, consistency, credibility, accuracy, and completeness of one of six witness testimonies. Although sober when interviewed, witnesses were either sober, moderately, or severely intoxicated (BAC under/over .08%) during the crime, with half of jurors being provided with this information. Within each condition, the testimony was either long or short, with the former being more complete. From the credibility ratings, a single principal component analysis factor was extracted. Subsequent analysis of variance analyses indicated that knowledge of the witness’s intoxication and a less complete account led to lower credibility ratings. With no main effect of intoxication, the testimony of an intoxicated witness itself was not perceived as less credible. Findings are discussed in relation to the criminal justice system and future research.
Nitrogen-enriched porous and layered graphitic carbon materials (N-PLGCs) were prepared by the thermal annealing of polyaniline (PANI)/melamine composites. The effects of nitrogen groups and structural features on the electrochemical performance of N-PLGCs were investigated. It was found that PANI served as a substrate and layered graphitic carbons were formed by thermal annealing of melamine. Flower-like carbons were formed with optimized PANI/melamine ratio. The nitrogen groups and specific surface area of N-PLGCs increased with increasing melamine content, resulting in enhanced electrochemical performance. Indeed, the N-PLGCs showed excellent electrochemical performance with the high specific capacitance (218F/g) at a scan rate of 0.1A/g as well as good rate capability. These results indicate that the porous and layered features of N-PLGC lead to feasible ion transfer during charge/discharge duration and the presence of high nitrogen groups on the N-PLGC electrode could provide a pseudocapacitive effect.
In most everyday settings, speech is heard in the presence of competing sounds and understanding speech requires skills in auditory streaming and segregation, followed by identification and recognition, of the attended signals. Ageing leads to difficulties in understanding speech in noisy backgrounds. In addition to age-related changes in hearing-related factors, cognitive factors also play a role but it is unclear to what extent these are generalized or modality-specific cognitive factors. We examined how ageing in normal-hearing decade age cohorts from 20 to 69 years affected discrimination of open-set speech in background noise. We used two types of sentences of similar structural and linguistic characteristics but different masking levels (i.e. differences in signal-to-noise ratios required for detection of sentences in a standard masker) so as to vary sentence demand, and two background maskers (one causing purely energetic masking effects and the other causing energetic and informational masking) to vary load conditions. There was a decline in performance (measured as speech reception thresholds for perception of sentences in noise) in the oldest cohort for both types of sentences, but only in the presence of the more demanding informational masker. We interpret these results to indicate a modality-specific decline in cognitive processing, likely a decrease in the ability to use acoustic and phonetic cues efficiently to segregate speech from background noise, in subjects aged >60.
Objective The goal of this study was to examine the influence of seizure freedom on executive function in outpatients with generalized epilepsy and extrafrontal partial epilepsy. Recent investigations of cognitive function in epilepsy have revealed executive deficits in persons with focal temporal as well as generalized epilepsies. Additional studies have suggested an influence of seizure freedom on cognitive function. Methods Thirty-five consecutive outpatients were divided into seizure free ⩽3 months (n =18) and seizure free >3 months (n =17). The neuropsychological tests administered included: verbal fluency tasks, the Cognitive Estimation Test, the Hayling and Brixton Test, and the Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS) battery. Both patient groups were compared with matched healthy controls (n =16). Results The extensive testing revealed significant differences between patients with shorter seizure-free periods and healthy controls with respect to overall errors and phonemic verbal fluency, response suppression, and BADS overall profile scores. Subjects seizure free >3 months exhibited a trend toward impairment in the phonemic fluency task only. Conclusions The results suggest that deficits in executive function were present in patients with extrafrontal partial epilepsy and generalized epilepsy, indicating the potential influence of epileptic activity on the ability to focus on relevant information and switch attention to other relevant information, to plan tasks and subtasks, and to check on and encode working memory content. The results also suggest that those deficits may be more pronounced in patients with relatively short seizure-free periods.
Thermal management is a key issue concerning lifetime and performance of double layer capacitors and battery technologies. Double layer capacitor modules for hybrid vehicles are subject to heavy duty cycling conditions and therefore significant heat generation occurs. High temperature causes accelerated aging of the double layer capacitors and hence reduced lifetime. To investigate the thermal behavior of double layer capacitors, thermal measurements during charge/discharge cycles were performed. These measurements show that heat generation in double layer capacitors is the superposition of an irreversible Joule heat generation and a reversible heat generation caused by a change in entropy. A mathematical representation of both parts is provided.
Healthy aging is associated with a decline in multiple functional domains including perception, attention, short and long-term memory, reasoning, decision-making, as well as cognitive and motor control functions; all of which are significantly modulated by an individual’s level of alertness. The control of alertness also significantly declines with age and contributes to increased lapses of attention in everyday life, ranging from minor memory slips to a lack of vigilance and increased risk of falls or motor-vehicle accidents. Several experimental behavioral therapies designed to remediate age-related cognitive decline have been developed, but differ widely in content, method and dose. Preliminary studies demonstrate that Tonic and Phasic Alertness Training (TAPAT) can improve executive functions in older adults and may be a useful adjunct treatment to enhance benefits gained in other clinically validated treatments. The purpose of the current trial (referred to as the Attention training for Learning Enhancement and Resilience Trial or ALERT) is to compare TAPAT to an active control training condition, include a larger sample of patients, and assess both cognitive and functional outcomes.
This study is a contribution to the analysis of energy production by hybrid systems using renewable energy sources. It is realized within the framework of an isolated site, i.e., without any connection to an electrical network. Generally, with the conventional solutions for energy production, the needs in terms of electrical energy and thermal energy are met separately. In this paper, we explore an alternative approach based on a strategy of hybridization which uses energy conversion to meet the energy needs. In this alternative approach, a large part of the directly produced thermal energy is replaced by electrical energy and an air/water heat pump variable input power is introduced to ensure a crossover between the thermal energy flow and the electrical energy flow. The contributions of this work can be summarized as follows. Firstly, we propose a methodology to control the functioning of the air/water heat pump variable input power. Secondly, we compare the potential of thermal energy production of two subsystems and we show the interest of using energy conversion according to the type of climate. Thirdly, we present a case study. More precisely, the study is realized for representative locations in France. The objective is twofold. First, an analysis of the energy potential at the representative sites is given. Second, it is established that the energy produced is increased by using the hybridization strategy based on energy conversion, especially in winter which is the critical period in terms of both electrical and thermal needs. Simulation and experimental results are presented and analyzed to show the interest of introducing a pump heat in the hybrid system, mainly when using the technology with variable input power.
As personal electronic systems proliferate, a rapidly growing and influential customer base is calling for better performance from batteries. Powder metallurgy can make a contribution in this area…