batterydata/paper-abstracts huggingface dataset:
Biologging studies have revealed a wealth of information about the spatio-temporal movements of a wide range of vertebrates large enough to carry electronic tracking tags. Advances in autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs or UAVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (commonly known as drones), which can carry far larger payloads of sensor technologies, have revealed insights into the environment through which animals travel. Some AUVs have been used to film target animals, but are generally limited to periods as long as a drone operator can actively follow an animal. In the present study, we use an AUV, the REMUS-100 SharkCam, paired with a custom transponder tag attached to the shark, to autonomously follow three basking sharks for a cumulative total of 10.9 h to collect video and environmental data on their sub-surface behaviour. The basking shark is the second largest fish in the world and is endangered globally, but despite being subject to various biologging studies, little is known of this species breeding ecology and their mating grounds remain unknown.
Waste selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalysts are potential environmental hazards. In this study, the recovery of vanadium and tungsten from waste SCR catalysts by K2CO3 roasting and water leaching was investigated. The roasting and leaching conditions were optimized: the leaching efficiencies of vanadium and tungsten were 91.19% and 85.36%, respectively, when 18 equivalents of K2CO3 were added to perform the roasting at 900 °C for 2 h, followed by leaching at 90 °C for 1 h. Notably, in the described conditions, the leaching rate of silicon was only 28.55%. Titanates, including K2Ti6O13 and KTi8O17, were also produced. Si removal was achieved in 85% efficiency adjusting the pH to 9.5, and the Si impurity thus isolated was composed of amorphous Si. Tungsten and vanadium were precipitated using CaCl2. At pH 10 and following the addition of 0.10 mol of H2O2 and 16 equivalents of CaCl2, the precipitating efficiencies of tungsten and vanadium were 96.89% and 99.65%, respectively. The overall yield of tungsten and vanadium was 82.71% and 90.87%, respectively.
This paper presents a multi-agent (MAS) solution to energy management in a distributed hybrid renewable energy generation system. An introduction and analysis of the system, including its constituents, characteristics and excitation mechanism are presented first. Then, validation of the MAS solution demonstrates its feasibility in meeting all the requirements of the system. Five kinds of agents are proposed to present the Energy Management System. Each agent is built as a three layered architecture. A macro MAS is also presented in detail with a framework containing its overall optimisation function based on JADE (Java Agent Development). Discussion about the agents’ behaviours and a scenario case study on the MAS and its testing process are included in the paper. It indicates that the MAS is a suitable solution for the energy management of the distributed hybrid renewable energy generation system.
Standalone street lighting as a preferred application for road lighting faces two important issues: supply performance and energy cost. According to past research, optimization of hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) in street light supply seems the best known approach to deal with these issues. However, the complex design of street light supply with non-linearity of power units and uncertainty of load pattern makes optimization a challenge. This study employs genetic algorithm (GA) optimization to deal with these complex and uncertain systems. In order to optimize streetlight supply, it takes into account the energy cost for a single-objective problem and both the energy cost and supply performance for a multi-objective problem. This study also integrates traffic-based lighting control to overcome the power consumption issue in the load side affecting the optimum design of the streetlight supply. The system including real weather data, real traffic conditions and optimization algorithm are simulated using MATLAB. Based on the results, the proposed method reduces the power consumption by around 47% for a one-year simulation study. Moreover, the optimal design of streetlight supply potentially minimizes power loss by approximately 39% and energy cost by about 29%.
There has been little experimental work investigating the emotional content of confabulation, despite clinical descriptions of self-serving and affectively positive biases. False memories were elicited in 10 amnesic confabulating patients, 10 healthy controls and four amnesic control patients without confabulation. Memory protocols of the interviews with these groups were presented to naïve raters who were asked to rate the emotional valence of the listed confabulations. The false memories of the confabulating patients were found to distort previous experiences in ways significantly more pleasant and self-enhancing than those of controls. It was also found paradoxically that the more depressed the patients' mood the more positive the content of their confabulations. These findings suggest that the content of confabulation is mostly positive. The results have implications for the role of emotion and motivation in confabulation, as well as for the clinical management of confabulating patients.
Electrochemical energy storage (EES) devices that combine high-performance are essential to resolve the extreme shortage of non-renewable energy sources and environmental issues. Nickel oxide (NiO) is considered to be a promising EES cathode material because of its ultra-high theoretical specific capacitance, whereas the practical applications are greatly limited with poor rate and cycle performance. Herein, we report the yolk-shelled NiO/Ni composites (YS NiO/Ni) that exhibit good charge storage capability in the aqueous electrolyte with high specific capacitance (2207.3 F g−1 at 1 A g−1), exceptional rate capability, and ultra-high cycling stability (95.8% retention after 10,000 cycles). The superior property can be ascribed to the special yolk-shelled structure that exposes more redox reaction active sites, and the associate Ni nanoparticles with flower-like NiO which can improve electron transfer as current collectors.
Population ageing, the emergence of chronic illness, and the shift away from institutional care challenge conventional approaches to assessment systems which traditionally are problem and setting specific.
Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) are intimately involved in combating oxidative stress and in detoxifying xenobiotics. Our objective was to examine possible interactions between polymorphisms in GST genes and plasma vitamin C, tocopherols and carotenoids in 149 reference subjects and 239 subjects occupationally exposed to mineral fibres (asbestos, rock wool, glass fibre), agents that induce oxidative stress.
LiCoO2 in the commercial lithium ion batteries has been suffering from its poor cycling performance at high cutoff voltages. In this study, we employ an atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique to surface-modify a LiCoO2 material with various thickness-controlled metal oxide (TiO2, ZrO2 and Al2O3) coatings to improve its battery performance. The effects of the metal oxide coatings on the electrochemical performance of LiCoO2 electrode are studied in detail. It is demonstrated that a uniform and dense coating via the ALD route on LiCoO2 powder can lower the battery performance due to an obvious decrease in lithium diffusion and electron transport with the coating layers. In contrast, it is revealed that a direct coating on prefabricated LiCoO2 electrodes performs much better than a coating on LiCoO2 powders. It is further disclosed that the improved electrochemical performance of coated LiCoO2 electrode is highly dependent on the coating materials. Of the three coating materials, the Al2O3 coating results in the best cycling stability while the ZrO2 coating contributes to the best rate capability. It is thus suggested that the coating materials are functionally specific, and for the best improvement of a cathode, a particular coating material should be sought.
A novel dimeric ionic liquid based on imidazolium cation and bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl) imide (TFSI) anion has been synthesized through a metathesis reaction. Its chemical shift values and thermal properties are identified via 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The effect of the synthesized dimeric ionic liquid on the interfacial resistance of gel polymer electrolytes is described. Differences in the SEM images of lithium electrodes after lithium deposition with and without the 1,1′-pentyl-bis(2,3-dimethylimidazolium) bis(trifluoromethane-sulfonyl)imide (PDMITFSI) ionic liquid in gel polymer electrolytes are clearly discernible. This occurs because the PDMITFSI ionic liquid with hydrophobic moieties and polar groups modulates lithium deposit pathways onto the lithium metal anode. Moreover, high anodic stability for a gel polymer electrolyte with the PDMITFSI ionic liquid was clearly observed.
In this work, electrochemical impedance was used to analyze the reaction kinetics and interfacial characteristics of an anode in a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). An advanced equivalent-circuit model is proposed. The new model incorporates constant phase elements (CPEs) rather than conventional capacitors in the equivalent-circuits taking into account the porous structure of the anode, particularly that in the catalyst layer and at the anode/membrane interface. It effectively simulated the electrochemical characteristics of a DMFC porous anode. The impedance model incorporates the interface factor, resulting in excellent matches between the simulation results and the experimental data in the Nyquist and the Bode plots over a wide range of frequencies. In addition, the differences among methanol electrooxidation reaction kinetics at various operating potentials are clearly observed and satisfactorily explained using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and the CPE-based equivalent-circuit model.
Li[Ni(1/3−z)Co(1/3−z)Mn(1/3−z)Mg z ]O2 (z =0, 0.04) positive electrode materials were synthesized via a co-precipitation method. These materials have α-NaFeO2 ( R 3 ¯ m ) structure, as confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies. Cation mixing in Li layer seemed to be decreased by Mg substitution as examined by Rietveld refinements of XRD data. Spherical morphologies were observed for the as-synthesized final products by scanning electron microscopy. Their electrochemical properties during charge and discharge were discussed. When magnesium ions are substituted, the initial reversible capacity reduced. However, the substitution for Mn sites in Li[Ni1/3Co1/3Mn1/3]O2 did not decrease the capacity because Mn sites substitution did not result in loss of electroactive elements in the compound. Differential scanning calorimetric studies showed the exothermic peaks of the charged electrode Li[Ni(1/3−z)Co(1/3−z)Mn(1/3−z)Mg z ]O2 (z =0.04) were significantly smaller than that of Li[Ni1/3Co1/3Mn1/3]O2, which means that thermal stability was greatly improved by Mg substitution even at highly delithiated state.
The procedure for the electrodeposition of a mesoporous nickel/cobalt layer from a liquid crystalline plating bath based on the cheap, commercial surfactant, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and an aqueous solution containing 0.84M NiCl2 and 0.20M CoCl2, has been investigated. The phase diagram for these mixtures is reported and it is shown that the H1 liquid crystalline phase has a high conductivity. The conditions for deposition have been established using cyclic voltammetry and potential step and deposits are characterised using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron diffraction analysis (EDX) and helium ion microscopy (HIM). Uniform thickness deposits with a Ni/Co ratio ∼4/1 can be prepared and they have a high surface area; in 1M NaOH Ni/Co alloy layers with a thickness of ∼2μm can store ∼1Ccm−2 in the Ni(OH)2/NiOOH couple. This charge may be cycled >20 times.
This study examined changes in Belgian students’ weight, body composition and physical fitness after 1.5 years at university. Furthermore, this study investigated whether these changes differed by gender and weight status.
New electrode material was synthesized via in situ simultaneous-thiol-treatment (STT) of graphene oxide (GO) and polyaniline nanofibers (Pnf), using a small percent of (3-Mercaptopropyl) trimethoxysilane (MPT) as the thiol precursor, during the process of polymerization in high acidic environment. The measured XRD and FTIR spectra confirmed the enhancement of the Pnf binding without impairing its conjugation, and the reduction of GO via chemical modification of the hydroxyl and epoxide groups. The thiolated Pnf-GO system was also characterized by EDX, SEM and TEM, and the results showed a well dispersive porous structure as well as an increase in the surface area over the non-thiolated Pnf-GO system by a factor of 2. Electrochemical studies revealed a well-defined redox peak, suggesting high faradaic contribution. The results of the performed different electrochemical tests agreed on the improvement of the specific capacity and the reduction of the charge-transfer resistance, which were facilitated by the morphological structure of the thiolated Pnf-GO nanocomposite system. A modified Randles equivalent circuit succeeded to model the impedance spectrum of the new electrode system by adding a finite-length Warburg element to account for the highly porous nanoscale structure and the randomly aligned diffusion boundaries.
Antisocial individuals have problems recognizing negative emotions (e.g. Marsh & Blair in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 32:454–465, 2009); however, due to issues with sampling and different methods used, previous findings have been varied. Sixty-three male young offenders and 37 age-, IQ- and socio-economic status-matched male controls completed a facial emotion recognition task, which measures recognition of happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, and surprise and neutral expressions across 4 emotional intensities. Conduct disorder (YSR), and psychopathic and callous/unemotional traits (YPI) were measured, and offenders’ offense data were taken from the Youth Offending Service’s case files. Relative to controls, offenders were significantly worse at identifying sadness, low intensity disgust and high intensity fear. A significant interaction for anger was also observed, with offenders showing reduced low- but increased high-intensity anger recognition in comparison with controls. Within the young offenders levels of conduct disorder and psychopathic traits explained variation in sadness and disgust recognition, whereas offense severity explained variation in anger recognition. These results suggest that antisocial youths show specific problems in recognizing negative emotions and support the use of targeted emotion recognition interventions for problematic behavior.
Aberrant posttranslational modifications (PTMs) of proteins, namely phosphorylation, induce abnormalities in the biological properties of recipient proteins, underlying neurological diseases including Parkinson’s disease (PD). Genome-wide studies link genes encoding α-synuclein (α-Syn) and Tau as two of the most important in the genesis of PD. Although several kinases are known to phosphorylate α-Syn and Tau, we focused our analysis on GSK-3β because of its accepted role in phosphorylating Tau and to increasing evidence supporting a strong biophysical relationship between α-Syn and Tau in PD. Therefore, we investigated transgenic mice, which express a point mutant (S9A) of human GSK-3β. GSK-3β-S9A is capable of activation through endogenous natural signaling events, yet is unable to become inactivated through phosphorylation at serine-9. We used behavioral, biochemical, and in vitro analysis to assess the contributions of GSK-3β to both α-Syn and Tau phosphorylation. Behavioral studies revealed progressive age-dependent impairment of motor function, accompanied by loss of tyrosine hydroxylase-positive (TH+ DA-neurons) neurons and dopamine production in the oldest age group. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed deterioration of the substantia nigra in aged mice, a characteristic feature of PD patients. At the molecular level, kinase-active p-GSK-3β-Y216 was seen at all ages throughout the brain, yet elevated levels of p-α-Syn-S129 and p-Tau (S396/404) were found to increase with age exclusively in TH+ DA-neurons of the midbrain. p-GSK-3β-Y216 colocalized with p-Tau and p-α-Syn-S129. In vitro kinase assays showed that recombinant human GSK-3β directly phosphorylated α-Syn at a single site, Ser129, in addition to its known ability to phosphorylate Tau. Moreover, α-Syn and Tau together cooperated with one another to increase the magnitude or rate of phosphorylation of the other by GSK-3β. Together, these data establish a novel upstream role for GSK-3β as one of several kinases associated with PTMs of key proteins known to be causal in PD.
Phase pure, nanostructured V, Mo and W nitrides and carbides were synthesized and characterized in aqueous KOH and H2SO4 electrolytes. Capacitances for most of the materials exceeded that expected for double layer charging and suggested a pseudocapacitive storage mechanism. With the exception of β-Mo2C, the materials were stable in KOH and/or H2SO4 electrolytes. Capacitances for VN in KOH and γ-Mo2N in H2SO4 were the highest and exceeded 200Fg−1. The charge-storage species were interrogated using an ion isolation method. The results provide unambiguous evidence that OH− was the principal charge storage species responsible for the pseudocapacitance demonstrated for VN in KOH while H+ was the principal species for γ-Mo2N in H2SO4.
Tidal creeks in large coastal deltas can be important habitat for fish but are often highly modified by human activities. Connectivity between tributary creeks and mainstem channels is often constrained by structures such as dikes and floodgates, designed to protect urban and agricultural areas from flooding. While they play important roles in flood mitigation, floodgates can diminish habitat quality and block fish from accessing tidal creeks. It is likely that floodgates differ in their operations and may consequently open for different amounts of time; however, floodgate operations and their effects are not well quantified. We asked the question: how does the mechanical functioning of these floodgates affect fish communities in tidal creeks? We used time-lapse cameras and quantified the timing of gate openings for 22 tributaries of the Lower Fraser River in British Columbia, Canada, and related these operational data to differences in fish communities above and below floodgates. Floodgate operations varied substantially, with some floodgates opening daily while others opened less than 20% of the day, on average. Sites with floodgates that seldom opened were associated with greater differences in fish communities and with reduced upstream native species richness by about one species on average. Where floodgates opened infrequently, we also found lower upstream dissolved oxygen concentrations than at sites where floodgates opened for longer periods of time. Thus, floodgate operations can influence fish communities as well as water quality. These data indicate a large scope for improving floodgate operations for connectivity.
The optimization strategy for producing manganese oxide supercapacitors based on vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) deposited on large area electrodes is presented. A single sequential process of sputtering, annealing and plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) is applied to produce dense and uniform VACNTs electrodes. As dielectric layer of the supercapacitor, manganese oxide is electrodeposited lining the surface of the VACNTs electrodes. The control of the growing parameters such as catalyst thickness layer, temperature and deposition time for tuning the density, length and diameter of the VACNTs and their structure are found to be key points for the optimization of the MnO2 electrodeposition process in view to improve the efficiency of the supercapacitor devices. The electrochemical properties of the obtained electrodes are characterized using cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge–discharge techniques. A specific capacitance of 642Fg−1 is obtained for MnO2/VACNTs nanocomposite electrode at a scan rate of 10mVs−1.
With the increasing interest in transition metal chalcogenides, sulfide minerals containing the disulfide unit (S2 2-) have gained intensive attention for potential applications in energy storage devices, such as lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Vanadium tetrasulfide (VS4) possesses a unique linear-chain structure with a Peierls distortion and shows great promise for application in LIBs. However, its electrochemical reaction mechanism is still controversial, mainly due to the amorphous nature of the intermediates and final products. Here, by applying multiple X-ray spectroscopies, we reveal that VS4 undergoes lithium intercalation and conversion reactions sequentially during the first discharge process, which are partially reversible in the subsequent charge process. However, an anomalous intercalation/conversion mixed reaction mechanism is dominant for the second cycle, mainly owing to the amorphization of the VS4 electrode during the first cycle. In addition, the sulfur atoms are also involved in the redox reaction during cycling, with the anionic contribution of S2 2- ↔ 2S2- transformation. Furthermore, we find that the formation process of the solid electrolyte interphase is highly dynamic during the discharge and charge processes. The present study provides deeper insights into the complex reaction mechanism of VS4. This knowledge can accelerate the development of high-performance VS4-based electrode materials for LIBs.
Zr-doped Li3V2–4x/3Zrx(PO4)3/C (x = 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15 or 0.2) composite cathode materials for lithium ion batteries had been prepared by a sol-gel method and characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, four-point probe measurements and electrochemical analyses. The cell volumes of the Zr-doped samples were larger than that of Li3V2(PO4)3, and Zr had an oxidation number of +4 in Zr-doped Li3V2–4x/3Zrx(PO4)3. The charge-transfer resistance of Li3V2(PO4)3/C was reduced and the reversibility was enhanced after Zr doping. All Zr-doped samples exhibited better electrochemical performance than pristine sample, and Li3V1.87Zr0.1(PO4)3/C composite displayed the highest capacity and the best cycle performance. The improved electrochemical performance mechanism for Zr-doped samples was discussed with respect to electronic structures using first-principle calculations. Zr doping did not significantly change the crystal structure of Li3V2(PO4)3, however, slight alterations in the lattice parameters and unit cell volume were observed. Li3V2(PO4)3 was affected by Zr doping at the V site with a narrower band gap as a result of the holes generated by activation of electrons to empty Zr states, leading to enhanced electronic conductivity of doped samples.