mlsa-iai-msu-lab/ru_sci_bench_zho_cite_reranking huggingface dataset:
Atomically dispersed Fe atoms anchored on N-doped carbon hollow nanospheres boost the electrocatalytic performance for oxygen reduction reaction

Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is the key reaction at the cathode of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) and metal-air batteries [1]. To address the challenges associated with Pt-based electrocatalysts having prominent activity for ORR, e.g. scarce abundance, prohibitive cost, poor stability, and vulnerability to reaction intermediates, it is necessary to explore other cost-effective ORR electrocatalysts with competitive or even superior performance to promote the commercialization of the energy conversion devices. Among a number of candidates to substitute for Pt-based catalysts, nitrogen-coordinated transition metals (TMs) anchored on carbon (TM-N-C) nanomaterials, especially Fe-N-C, have been emerging as a class of appealing ORR alternatives due to their earth abundance, tunable surface chemistry, modified electronic structure, and optimal O_2 adsorption [2,3]. On the other hand, single-atom catalysts (SACs) have garnered sustained research interest for their maximum atom utilization efficiency, homogeneity of the catalytically active sites, and unsaturated metal coordination [4]. Therefore, the combination of TM-N-C nanomaterials with atomic metal dispersion would be an effective strategy to further boost their electrocatalytic performance for ORR yet still remains greatly challenging.
A kinetic model for a single step biodiesel production from a high free fatty acid (FFA) biodiesel feedstock over a solid heteropolyacid catalyst

Production of biodiesel from yellow grease (waste cooking oil and waste animal fats) is fast emerging as a promising alternative to address the twin challenges before the biodiesel industry today-fluctuation in prices of vegetable oil and the food versus fuel debate. Yellow grease has a high percentage of free fatty acids (FFA) and proves to be an unsuitable feedstock for biodiesel production from commercially viable alkalicatalyzed production systems due to saponification problems. “Green” methodologies based on heterogeneous solid acid catalyzed reactions have the potential to simultaneously promote esterification and transesterification reactions of yellow grease to produce biodiesel without soap formation and offer easy catalyst separation without generation of toxic streams. This paper presents kinetic studies for the conversion of model yellow grease feeds to biodiesel using a heteropolyacid supported on alumina (HSiW/Al_2O_3) using a batch autoclave. Three model yellow grease feeds were prepared using canola oil with added FFA such as palmitic, oleic and linoleic acid. A pseudo homogeneous kinetic model for the parallel esterification and transesterification was developed. The rate constants and activation parameters for esterification and transesterification reactions for the model yellow grease feeds were determined. The rate constants for esterification are higher than the transesterification rate constants. The kinetic model was validated using the experimental biodiesel data obtained from processing a commercial yellow grease feed. The kinetic model could be used to design novel processes to convert various low-value waste oils, fats and non-food grade oils to sustainable biodiesel.
Rough-surfaced bimetallic copper-palladium alloy multicubes as highly bifunctional electrocatalysts for formic acid oxidation and oxygen reduction

Engineering the morphology of nanomaterials and modifying their electronic structure are effective ways to improve their performance in electrocatalysis. Through combining the co-reduction of Pd~(2+) and Cu~(2+) precursors with a digestive ripening process in oleylamine, we report the synthesis of copper-palladium (CuePd) alloy multicubes with rough surfaces. Benefiting from their alloy and unique rough-surfaced structure, which provides ample edge/corner and step atoms as well as the electronic coupling between Cu and Pd leading to the lower of d-band center, the rough-surfaced CuePd alloy multicubes show much better electrocatalytic performance not only for formic acid oxidation but also for oxygen reduction in comparison with those of spherical CuePd alloy nanoparticles and commercial Pd/C catalyst. In contrast, we confirm that the rough-surfaced CuePd alloy multicubes only exhibit very low Faradaic efficiency (34.3%) for electrocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide (CO_2) to carbon monoxide (CO) due to the presence of strong competing hydrogen evolution reaction, which results in their very poor selectivity for the reduction of CO_2 to CO. The findings in this study not only offer a promising strategy to produce highly effective electrocatalysts for direct formic acid fuel cells, but also enlighten the ideas to design efficient electrocatalysts for CO_2 reduction.
Mapping and genetic validation of a grain size QTL qGS7.1 in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Grain size is a major determinant of grain weight, which is one of the components of rice yield. The objective o this study was to identify novel, and important quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for grain size and weight in rice. QTLs were mapped using a BC4F4 population including 192 backcross inbred lines (BILs) derived from a backcross between Xiaolijing (XLJ) and recombinant inbred lines (RILs). The mapping population was planted in both Lingshui (Hainan, 2015) and Fuyang (Zhejiang, 2016), with the short- and long-day conditions, respectively. A total of 10 QTLs for grain length, four for grain width, four for the ratio of grain length to width, and 11 for grain weight were detected in at least one environment and were distributed across 11 chromosomes. The phenotypic variance explained ranged from 6.76–25.68%, 14.30–34.03%, 5.28–26.50%, and 3.01–22.87 %for grain length, grain width, the ratio of grain length to width, and thousand grain weight, respectively. Using the sequential residual heterozygotes (SeqRHs) method, qGS7.1, a QTL for grain size and weight, was mapped in a 3.2-Mb interval on chromosome 7. No QTLs about grain size and weight were reported in previous studies in this region, providing a good candidate for functional analysis and breeding utilization.
Correlation of production constraints with the yield gap of apple cropping systems in Luochuan County, China

Apple occupies a dominant position in fruit production globally, and has become the main income source of local smallholder farmers in Luochuan County in the Loess Plateau area, one of the largest apple production areas in China. However, the annual productivity of apple orchards in this region remains low and has gradually declined over the years. The distinction and correlation of production constraints can contribute to the promotion of apple orchard productivity and the development of a sustainable orchard system. In the present study, survey data from 71 smallholder farmers were analyzed using a yield gap model to distinguish the production constraints and determine their correlation with the yield gap based on the structural equation model (SEM). The results indicated that the average apple yield in Luochuan County was 29.9 t ha~(–1) yr~(–1), while the attainable yield (Y_(att); the highest yield obtained from the on-farm surveys) was 58.1 t ha~(–1) yr~(–1). The average explained and unexplainable yield gaps were 26.3 and 1.87 t ha~(–1) yr~(–1). According to the boundary line analysis, crop load, number of sprayings and base fertilizer N were the top three constraints on apple production in 9.8, 7.8 and 7.8 %of the plots, respectively. Among the production constraints, crop load and fruit weight affected apple yield through direct pathways, whereas other constraints influenced apple yield through an indirect pathway based on the SEM, explaining 51 %of the yield variance by all the main production constraints. These results can improve the current understanding of production constraints and contribute to the development of management strategies and policies for improving apple yield.
Shape grammars as a reverse engineering method for the morphogenesis of architectural facade design

The field of shape grammars spans 47 years, but its potential in the practice and education of art, architecture, and engineering remains far from being utilized. Similarly, while reverse engineering in some engineering disciplines is well-established, its implementation in architectural design remains under-represented. By combining the two domains, this paper develops a novel method that merges the power of shape grammars as a parsing tool in reverse engineering to decode the morphogenesis of visual compositions in architectural design. The merged power is demonstrated by decoding the formal language of a facade design of a case study, in which seemingly few simple rules can derive surprisingly complex compositions. The rules of the language can then be used to reconstruct parts of the case facade. Most shape grammars in the architectural literature are applied on formal historical precedents, but the subject of morphological analysis in this paper is contemporary and has a style that exhibits non-orthogonal configurations, which initially appear far from being standardized or subjected to regulatory tectonic rules. The facade derivation grammar is explained and resynthesized in various computations to explore emergent articulations that display its predictive, synthetic, and generative powers in addition to typical analytic ones.
Reducing architecture: Doing almost nothing as a city-making strategy in 21st century architecture

This paper discusses a contemporary design strategy to deal with urban spaces. In 21st century architecture it is possible to recognize the existence of several projects that consist in doing almost nothing, carrying out only minimal modifications to their sites of intervention. In present-day architecture, this approach is considered useful sometimes to respect the surroundings and sometimes to improve them through the smallest and tiniest actions. Doing almost nothing is a strategy that can unfold in many ways. It can mean opting for inaction and thus not modifying a place at all; or designing a temporary project intended to occupy it only for a limited period of time; or also carrying out a particularly small but permanent intervention. Depending on the circumstances, it is an approach that can help architecture protecting a place, reclaiming it or reactivating its latent qualities. This strategy can be implemented both through a single intervention on a specific place, or through a network of coordinated projects in different locations. The purpose of the paper is to present this approach in the context of 21st century urban architecture, through cases studied from the last two decades.
Contextual modeling on auxiliary points for robust image reranking

Image reranking is an effective post-processing step to adjust the similarity order in image retrieval.As key components of initialized ranking lists,top-ranked neighborhoods of a given query usually play important roles in constructing dissimilarity measure.However,the number of pertinent candidates varies with respect to different queries.Thus the images with short lists of ground truth suffer from insufficient contextual information.It consequently introduces noises when using k-nearest neighbor rule to define the context.In order to alleviate this problem,this paper proposes auxiliary points which are added as assistant neighbors in an unsupervised manner.These extra points act on revealing implicit similarity in the metric space and clustering matched image pairs.By isometrically embedding each constructed metric space into the Euclidean space,the image relationships on underlying topological manifolds are locally represented by distance descriptions.Furthermore,by combining Jaccard index with our auxiliary points,we present a contextual modeling on auxiliary points (CMAP) method for image reranking.With richer contextual activations,the Jaccard similarity coefficient defined by local distribution achieves more reliable outputs as well as more stable parameters.Extensive experiments demonstrate the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed method.
Simultaneous removal of hydrogen sulfide and volatile organic sulfur compounds in off-gas mixture from a wastewater treatment plant using a two-stage bio-trickling filter system

Simultaneous removal of hydrogen sulfide (H_2S) and volatile organic sulfur compounds (VOSCs) in off-gas mixture from a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) is difficult due to the occasional inhibitory effects of H_2S on VOSC degradation.In this study,a two-stage bio-trickling filter (BTF) system was developed to treat off-gas mixture from a real WWTP facility.At an empty bed retention time of 40 s,removal efficiencies of H_2S,methanethiol,dimethyl sulfide,and dimethyl disulfide were 90.1,88.4,85.8,and 61.8%,respectively.Furthermore,the effect of lifting load shock on system performance was investigated and results indicated that removal of both H_2S and VOSCs was slightly affected.Illumina Miseq sequencing revealed that the microbial community of first-stage BTF contained high abundance of H_2S-affinity genera including Acidithiobacillus (51.43%),Metallibacterium (25.35%),and Thionomas (8.08%).Analysis of mechanism demonstrated that first stage of BTF removed 86.1% of H_2S,mitigating the suppression on VOSC degradation in second stage of BTF.Overall,the twostage BTF system,an innovative bioprocess,can simultaneously remove H_2S and VOSC.
Combined Fenton process and sulfide precipitation for removal of heavy metals from industrial wastewater:Bench and pilot scale studies focusing on in-depth thallium removal

Thallium (Tl) in industrial wastewater is a public health concern due to its extremely high toxicity.However,there has been limited research regarding Tl removal techniques and engineering practices to date.In this investigation,bench and pilot studies on advanced treatment of industrial wastewater to remove Tl to a trace level were conducted.The treatment process involved a combination of hydroxide precipitation,Fenton oxidation,and sulfide precipitation.While hydroxide precipitation was ineffective for Tl~+ removal,it enabled the recovery of approximately 70%-80% of Zn as Zn hydroxide in alkaline conditions.The Fenton process provided good Tl removal (>95%) through oxidation and precipitation.Tl was then removed to trace levels (<1.0 µg/L) via sulfide precipitation.Effective removal of other heavy metals was also achieved,with Cd<13.4 µg/L,Cu <39.6 µg/L,Pb <5.32 µg/L,and Zn <357 µg/L detected in the effluent.X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicated that Tl_2S precipitate formed due to sulfide precipitation.Other heavy metals were removed via the formation of metal hydroxides during hydroxide precipitation and Fenton treatment,as well as via the formation of metal sulfides during sulfide precipitation.This combined process provides a scalable approach for the in-depth removal of Tl and other heavy metals from industrial wastewater.
Special column: solar energy conversion

It is a great challenge to meet the increasing energy requirement due to the increase of the population and the improvement of the living standard. As the largest single available source of clean energy, the sun deposits 120000 TW of radiation on the earth. The efficient use of solar energy would be a promising solution for the energy issue. Therefore, great efforts were made to develop solar technologies, such as solar cells, photocatalysis, photoelectrical catalysis, and photothermal devices. In this special column, six articles in solar energy conversion have been accepted for publication.
Exergetic sustainability evaluation and optimization of an irreversible Brayton cycle performance

Owing to the energy demands and global warming issue, employing more effective power cycles has become a responsibility. This paper presents a thermodynamical study of an irreversible Brayton cycle with the aim of optimizing the performance of the Brayton cycle. Moreover, four different schemes in the process of multiobjective optimization were suggested, and the outcomes of each scheme are assessed separately. The power output, the concepts of entropy generation, the energy, the exergy output, and the exergy efficiencies for the irreversible Brayton cycle are considered in the analysis. In the first scheme, in order to maximize the exergy output, the ecological function and the ecological coefficient of performance, a multi-objective optimization algorithm (MOEA) is used. In the second scheme, three objective functions including the exergetic performance criteria, the ecological coefficient of performance, and the ecological function are maximized at the same time by employing MOEA. In the third scenario, in order to maximize the exergy output, the exergetic performance criteria and the ecological coefficient of performance, a MOEA is performed. In the last scheme, three objective functions containing the exergetic performance criteria, the ecological coefficient of performance, and the exergy-based ecological function are maximized at the same time by employing multi-objective optimization algorithms. All the strategies are implemented via multi-objective evolutionary algorithms based on the NSGAII method. Finally, to govern the final outcome in each scheme, three wellknown decision makers were employed.
Finite element modeling of counter-roller spinning for large-sized aluminum alloy cylindrical parts

Counter-roller spinning(CRS), where the mandrel is replaced by rollers, is an effective means of manufacturing large-sized, thin-walled, cylindrical parts with more than 2500 mm diameter. CRS is very complex because of multi-axis rotation, multi-local loading along the circumference, and radial-axial compound deformation. Analytical or experimental methods cannot fully understand CRS. Meanwhile, numerical simulation is an adequate approach to investigate CRS with comprehensive understanding and a low cost. Thus, a finite element(FE) model of CRS was developed with the FORGE code via meshing technology, material modeling, determining the friction condition, and so on. The local fine mesh moving with the roller is one of highlights of the model. The developed 3D-FE model was validated through a CRS experiment by using a tubular blank with a 720 mm outer diameter. The developed 3D-FE model of CRS can provide a basis for parameter optimization, process control, die design, and so on. The data on force and energy predicted by the 3D-FE model can offer reasonable suggestions for determining the main mechanical parameters of CRS machines and selecting the motors. With the predicted data, an all-electric servo-drive system/machine with distributed power was designed in this work for CRS with four pairs of rollers to manufacture a large-sized, thinwalled, cylindrical part with 6000 mm diameter.
Changes in public trust in physicians: empirical evidence from China

Studies examining the trends in public trust in physicians have provided a considerable amount of valuable policy implications for policymakers compared with cross-sectional studies on this topic in many countries. This study investigated changes in public trust in physicians in China based on two cross-sectional national surveys conducted in 2011 and 2016 and identified the determinants of these changes. The results indicated 83.4% of respondents in 2011 reported trust or strong trust in physicians in China, which decreased to 64.2% by 2016. The results of ordinal logistic regression demonstrated that public trust in physicians in China had decreased significantly from 2011 to 2016(P < 0.001) after adjusting for other independent variables. Selfreported health status, self-rated happiness, and self-identified social class were all associated positively with public trust in physicians in China. The results also confirmed that decreasing public satisfaction with the most recent treatment experience was the major determinant of decreasing public trust in physicians in China. The findings of this study suggest that decreasing public trust in physicians deserves considerable attention from national policymakers and that improving satisfaction with treatment experiences would be the most effective strategy for enhancing public trust in physicians in China.
Exploring alkylthiol additives in PBDB-T:ITIC blended active layers for solar cell applications

Bulk heterojunction, non-fullerene PBDB-T:ITIC blend polymer solar cells have been fabricated. The active layers consisting of PBDB-T as a donor and ITIC as an acceptor are optimized using a series of alkylthiol additives (1,3- propanedithiol, 1,4-butanedithiol, and 1,8-octanedithiol). It is found that the donor and acceptor are phase separated with different crystalline domains. The additives effectively re-organize the morphology and extend the molecule ordering in lamellar structure with increased correlation length in ITIC domain, benefiting the generation and dissociation of exciton and reducing charge recombination. A substantial improvement in power conversion efficiency of the devices from 8.13% to 9.44% is observed. This study shows that the application of alkylthiol additives is a simple and effective approach to improve the device performance in solar cells based on polymer/non-fullerene blend system.
Effects of bismuth on structural and dielectric properties of cobalt-cadmium spinel ferrites fabricated via micro-emulsion route

Spinel ferrites have a significant role in high-tech applications. In the present work nano-crystalline ferrites having general formula Co_(0.5)Cd_(0.5)Bi_xFe_(2-x)O_4 with (x = 0.0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2, and 0.25) are synthesized via micro-emulsion route. Powder x-ray diffraction (XRD) studies discover the FCC spinel structure. Crystalline size is calculated in a range of 11 nm-15 nm. Lattice parameter calculations are reduced due to its substitution which leads to the exchange of large ionic radius of Fe~(3+) for small ionic radius of Bi~(3+). The x-ray density is analyzed to increase with doping. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) is performed to analyze absorption band spectra. The two absorption bands are observed in a range of 400 cm~(-1)-600 cm~(-1), and they are the characteristic feature of spinel structure. Thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) reveals the total weight loss of nearly 1.98%. Dielectric analysis is carried out by impedance analyzer in a frequency span from 1 MHz to 3 GHz by using the Maxwell Wagner model. Dielectric studies reveal the decrease of dielectric parameters. The alternating current (AC) conductivity exhibits a plane behavior in a low frequency range and it increases with the applied frequency increasing. This is attributed to the grain effects in a high frequency range or may be due to the reduction of porosity. Real and imaginary part of impedance show the decreasing trend which corresponds to the grain boundary action. The imaginary modulus shows the occurrence of peak that helps to understand the interfacial polarization. Cole-Cole graph shows a single semicircle which confirms that the conduction mechanism is due to the grain boundaries at low frequency. Dielectric studies reveal the applicability of these ferrites in high frequency equipment, microwave applications, high storage media, and semiconductor devices.