Self‐Crystallized Multifunctional 2D Perovskite for Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells

Recently, perovskite solar cells (PSC) with high power‐conversion efficiency (PCE) and long‐term stability have been achieved by employing 2D perovskite layers on 3D perovskite light absorbers. However, in‐depth studies on the material and the interface between the two perovskite layers are still required to understand the role of the 2D perovskite in PSCs. Self‐crystallization of 2D perovskite is successfully induced by deposition of benzyl ammonium iodide (BnAI) on top of a 3D perovskite light absorber. The self‐crystallized 2D perovskite can perform a multifunctional role in facilitating hole transfer, owing to its random crystalline orientation and passivating traps in the 3D perovskite. The use of the multifunctional 2D perovskite (M2P) leads to improvement in PCE and long‐term stability of PSCs both with and without organic hole transporting material (HTM), 2,2′,7,7′‐tetrakis‐(N,N‐di‐p‐methoxyphenyl‐amine)‐9,9′‐spirobifluorene (spiro‐OMeTAD) compared to the devices without the M2P.     

The weights initialization methodology of unsupervised neural networks to improve clustering stability

The Journal of Supercomputing - A study on initialization of connection weights of neural networks is expected to be needed because various deep neural networks based on deep learning have...     

Highly Sensitive Temperature Sensor: Ligand‐Treated Ag Nanocrystal Thin Films on PDMS with Thermal Expansion Strategy

Highly sensitive temperature sensors are designed by exploiting the interparticle distance–dependent transport mechanism in nanocrystal (NC) thin films based on a thermal expansion strategy. The effect of ligands on the electronic, thermal, mechanical, and charge transport properties of silver (Ag) NC thin films on thermal expandable substrates of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) is investigated. While inorganic ligand‐treated Ag NC thin films exhibit a low temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR), organic ligand‐treated films exhibit extremely high TCR up to 0.5 K^?1, which is the highest TCR exhibited among nanomaterial‐based temperature sensors to the best of the authors' knowledge. Structural and electronic characterizations, as well as finite element method simulation and transport modeling are conducted to determine the origin of this behavior. Finally, an all‐solution based fabrication process is established to build Ag NC‐based sensors and electrodes on PDMS to demonstrate their suitability as low‐cost, high‐performance attachable temperature sensors.     

Impedance Method for Abnormality Detection of a Branched Pipeline System

In this paper, an integrated detection scheme is developed to simultaneously address a leakage, a partial blockage and unknown branched pipeline elements. Expressions for the pressure head and discharge for a branched pipeline system having both a leakage and a blockage are derived in frequency domain. Boundary conditions for a reservoir and a branched dead-end allow the development of impedance formulations. The condition for a pipeline junction can be addressed using either a common condition for the pressure head combined with a continuity condition of discharge or a connectivity condition for impedance. In order to consider the unsteady friction’s impact, the impedance development process studied both the impact resulting from velocity profiles with two-dimensional distributions and the impact resulting from local and convective accelerations. Impedance expressions are derived for two distinct branched pipeline systems at different abnormality conditions. Based on drived formulations describing these systems, response functions were derived in the frequency domain and their corresponding time domain representations were integrated into a meta-heuristic calibration scheme for inverse transient analysis. Using an objective function for minimization of root-mean-square-errors between the observed and computed pressures, the calibration based one impulse response can simultaneously predict locations and magnitudes of abnormalities as well as parameters for a branched pipeline. The strength of the impedance-based approach for inverse transient analysis arises mainly from its feasibility to address different conservation conditions for pressure and discharge and for combining these conditions into a unified impedance connectivity condition.     

A study on stackable mosaic generation for mobile devices

With the growing use of mobile devices such as smartphones, tablet PCs, and digital cameras, photography has become an integral part of everyday life. In particular, mobile devices with cameras allow us to easily capture and modify photographs that can be shared via social networks. In this paper, we introduce a mobile device application for converting photographs into photomosaic images. In general, high-quality photomosaics require large databases. However, mobile devices have limited resources; hence it is difficult for such devices to support photomosaics. We propose a method that produces a photomosaic effect using a database that consists of rotatable images. We also propose a solution to the performance issue based on a best match search.     

Preface

It is our great pleasure to edit this special section of the Journal of Computer Science and Technology (JCST).The database field has experienced a rapid growth with increasing of data.Therefore,novel technology for covering emerging databases such as network or graph analysis,spatial or temporal data analysis,search,recommendation,and data mining is required.The goal of the section is to provide state-of-the-art research issues,challenges,new technologies,and solutions of emerging databases.This section publishes seven interesting articles related to query processing,trajectory data reduction,botnet evolution,recommendation system,biclustering,and protein structure alignment.The articles are summarized as follows.     

Field Verification of the Damage Index Method in a Concrete Box-Girder Bridge via Visual Inspection

The structural condition of a concrete box-girder bridge is monitored twice by detecting and localizing potential damage in the bridge superstructure. Experimental field data were collected on the bridge in December 1997 and 9 months later in September 1998. Modal parameters for the structure are extracted from the measured frequency-response functions, and the resulting resonant frequencies and modeshapes are fed into a proven systems identification procedure. Modal parameters from the identified baseline structure and the modal parameters determined in the field are used as input to a field-tested nondestructive damage-evaluation method (the damage index method) to localize damage in the bridge superstructure. To provide some evidence of the veracity of the predictions of the possible damage locations, a visual inspection was performed on the bridge in May 1999, and surface cracks on the deck were recorded. A comparison of the predicted damage locations on the superstructure with the surface cracks documented via visual inspection is provided. The results indicate that a strong correlation exists between the predicted damage locations and the observed surface crack pattern.     

Pyrococcus furiosus-immobilized anodized tubular titania cathode in a hydrogen production system

Anodized tubular titania (TiO₂) electrodes (ATTEs) are prepared and used as both the photoanode and the cathode substrate in a photoelectrochemical system designed to split water into hydrogen with the assistance of an enzyme and an external bias of 1.5 V. In particular, the ATTE used as the cathode substrate for the immobilization of the enzyme is prepared by two methods—adsorption and crosslinking. Results show that the optimized amount of enzyme is 10.98 units for the slurried enzyme, 3.66 units for the adsorbed one and 7.32 units for the crosslinked one, and the corresponding hydrogen evolution rates are 33.04, 148.58 and 234.88 μmol h⁻¹, respectively. The immobilized enzyme, specifically the chemically crosslinked one, seems to be much superior to the slurried enzyme, due to the enhanced charge-transfer process that is caused by the lower electrical resistance between the enzyme and the ATTE. This results in a greater number of accepted electrons and a larger amount of enzymes able to deal with the electrons.     

Thermophysical Properties of Aluminum 1060 Fabricated by Equal Channel Angular Pressing

Equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) has the advantage of enabling an ultrafine grain size. Aluminum 1060 is used as a power plant material because of its favorable electrical properties. However, the weak strength of aluminum limits its application. In this study, the thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity of Al 1060 made by ECAP was investigated. ECAP was conducted through the die having a channel angle of 90° and a corner angle of 20° at a temperature of 473 K with a strain rate of 2 mm · s⁻¹. The specimen was then processed with 1 to 8 passes by the route Bc method with 90° rotation. In the case of eight passes, the grain size was reduced to as small as 300 nm. As a result of the ECAP, the tensile strength was raised from 75 MPa to 134 MPa, while the electrical conductivity did not show a significant difference after eight passes. The thermal conductivity gradually decreased with ECAP passes, because of the decreased grain size by ECAP.