Fabrication,structural and vibrational properties,and physical and optical properties tailoring of nanocrystalline MoS2 films

The modification and tuning features of nanostructured films are of great interest because of controllable and distinctive inherent properties in these materials. Here, nanocrystalline MoS₂ films were fabricated on the stainless steels by a radio frequency magnetron sputtering at ambient temperature. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and Raman scattering spectroscopy were used to study the chemical state, chemical composition, crystal structure and vibrational properties of the fabricated MoS₂ films. The bias voltage dependent structural evolution and its influence on the optical properties of MoS₂ nanocrystalline films were systematically investigated. Besides, the residual stresses of MoS₂ nanocrystalline films were explored by employing sin²ψ approach. X-ray diffraction demonstrates that the nanocrystalline MoS₂ films have single-phase hexagonal crystal structure. All MoS₂ films are polycrystalline in nature. The bandgap values are found to be intensively dependent on bias voltage. Our findings show that the nanocrystalline MoS₂ films with different physical properties and intense quantum confinement effect can be realized through adjusting bias voltages. This work may provide deep insight for realizing transitional metal dichalcogenide-based nanostructured film optoelectronic devices with tunable physical properties through a traditional, very cost-effective, and large-scale fabrication method.     

Semantically enriched Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) platform

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are becoming an essential source of information for both students and teachers. Noticeably, MOOCs have to adapt to the fast development of new technologies; they also have to satisfy the current generation of online students. The current MOOCs’ Management Systems, such as Coursera, Udacity, edX, etc., use content management platforms where content are organized in a hierarchical structure. We envision a new generation of MOOCs that support interpretability with formal semantics by using the SemanticWeb and the online social networks. Semantic technologies support more flexible information management than that offered by the current MOOCs’ platforms. Annotated information about courses, video lectures, assignments, students, teachers, etc., can be composed from heterogeneous sources, including contributions from the communities in the forum space. These annotations, combined with legacy data, build foundations for more efficient information discovery in MOOCs’ platforms. In this article we review various Collaborative Semantic Filtering technologies for building Semantic MOOCs’ management system, then, we present a prototype of a semantic middle-sized platform implemented at Western Kentucky University that answers these aforementioned requirements.     

Integrated circuit and system design for renewable energy inverters

This study proposes that a novel integrated circuit (IC) and system design for renewable energy inverters can harvest renewable energy to power direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) loads. In addition, an intelligent synthesis and management tool is developed to design the proposed system and to judge the system’s operational maintenance decisions. Finally, a renewable energy inverter’s information is posted to an online system. Users can obtain the proposed system’s information at any time and place. The accurate and superior performance of the proposed IC and system is confirmed by computer simulations and experimental results.     

Heterometallic sulfide cluster [Ag6Sn6S20]10 −: Solvothermal syntheses and characterizations of silver thiostannates with lanthanide complex counter cations

Novel organic hybrid silver thiostannates [Hen]₄[Ln(en)₄]₂[Ag₆Sn₆S₂₀]·3en (Ln = Er, 1; Tm, 2; Yb, 3) were prepared by the reactions of Ln₂O₃, Ag, Sn and S in ethylenediamine (en) under solvothermal conditions. Six SnS₄ tetrahedra and six AgS₃ triangles are connected into the heterometallic sulfide cluster [Ag₆Sn₆S₂₀]^10 − via edge-sharing. In the [Ag₆Sn₆S₂₀]^10 − cluster, a hexanuclear Ag₆S₆ core is enclosed by two Sn₃S₁₀ fragments. The Ag₆S₆ core is the first As–S cluster stabilized by inorganic SnS₄ ligands. In 1–3, all Ln^3 + ions are in 8-fold coordination environments that involved four bidentate en ligands, forming bicapped trigonal prisms. Compounds 1–3 show well-defined absorption edges with band gaps in the range of 2.18–2.47 eV.     

Hierarchical multi-reservoir optimization modeling for real-world complexity with application to the Three Gorges system

High dimensionality in real-world multi-reservoir systems greatly hinders the application and popularity of evolutionary algorithms, especially for systems with heterogeneous units. An efficient hierarchical optimization framework is presented for search space reduction, determining the best water distributions, not only between cascade reservoirs, but also among different types of hydropower units. The framework is applied to the Three Gorges Project (TGP) system and the results demonstrate that the difficulties of multi-reservoir optimization caused by high dimensionality can be effectively solved by the proposed hierarchical method. For the day studied, power output could be increased by 6.79 GWh using an optimal decision with the same amount of water actually used; while the same amount of power could be generated with 2.59 × 10⁷ m³ less water compared to the historical policy. The methodology proposed is general in that it can be used for other reservoir systems and other types of heterogeneous unit generators.     

A bat-neural network multi-agent system (BNNMAS) for stock price prediction: Case study of DAX stock price

Creating an intelligent system that can accurately predict stock price in a robust way has always been a subject of great interest for many investors and financial analysts. Predicting future trends of financial markets is more remarkable these days especially after the recent global financial crisis. So traders who access to a powerful engine for extracting helpful information throw raw data can meet the success. In this paper we propose a new intelligent model in a multi-agent framework called bat-neural network multi-agent system (BNNMAS) to predict stock price. The model performs in a four layer multi-agent framework to predict eight years of DAX stock price in quarterly periods. The capability of BNNMAS is evaluated by applying both on fundamental and technical DAX stock price data and comparing the outcomes with the results of other methods such as genetic algorithm neural network (GANN) and some standard models like generalized regression neural network (GRNN), etc. The model tested for predicting DAX stock price a period of time that global financial crisis was faced to economics. The results show that BNNMAS significantly performs accurate and reliable, so it can be considered as a suitable tool for predicting stock price specially in a long term periods.     

Rip currents near coastal structures in Lake Michigan: Characterization and assessment for warnings

Rip currents near coastal structures commonly occur in Lake Michigan in the Great Lakes region of the United States. Lack of timely warning due to undocumented characteristics of rip currents and no assessment tool can contribute to tragic drownings incidents. In this paper, we characterized rip current occurrences near breakwater structures and developed an assessment tool for providing timely rip current warnings to beachgoers at the study site, City of Port Washington, WI. Characteristics of rip currents near the structure were observed from field measurements or visual images. Deflection rip currents had speeds of ～ 0.2 m/s and lasted for several hours. The rip current occurrences were associated with environmental proxies. It was found that rip currents can occur even when the water appears calm near the structure. A Structure Rip Checklist and Assessment Matrix (SRiCAM) with a four-tiered risk was developed and validated using observations. Furthermore, the SRiCAM was integrated into cyberinfrastructure with a data contingency plan to provide real-time warnings to the public. The applicability of the SRiCAM to other locations across Lake Michigan was further tested and results are promising. Overall, the SRiCAM has the potential to be widely extended to foster recreational water safety and resilience to rip current hazards in the Great Lakes.     

Usability of a cloud-based collaborative learning framework to improve learners’ experience

Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is concerned with how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) might facilitate learning in groups which can be co-located or distributed over a network of computers such as Internet. CSCL supports effective learning by means of communication of ideas and information among learners, collaborative access of essential documents, and feedback from instructors and peers on learning activities. As the cloud technologies are increasingly becoming popular and collaborative learning is evolving, new directions for development of collaborative learning tools deployed on cloud are proposed. Development of such learning tools requires access to substantial data stored in the cloud. Ensuring efficient access to such data is hindered by the high latencies of wide-area networks underlying the cloud infrastructures. To improve learners’ experience by accelerating data access, important files can be replicated so a group of learners can access data from nearby locations. Since a cloud environment is highly dynamic, resource availability, network latency, and learner requests may change. In this paper, we present the advantages of collaborative learning and focus on the importance of data replication in the design of such a dynamic cloud-based system that a collaborative learning portal uses. To this end, we introduce a highly distributed replication technique that determines optimal data locations to improve access performance by minimizing replication overhead (access and update). The problem is formulated using dynamic programming. Experimental results demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed collaborative learning system used by institutions in geographically distributed locations.     

iM-SIMPLE: iMproved stable increased-throughput multi-hop link efficient routing protocol for Wireless Body Area Networks

Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) are envisaged to play crucial role in psychological, medical and non-medical applications. This paper presents iM-SIMPLE; a reliable, and power efficient routing protocol with high throughput for WBAN. We deploy sensor nodes on human body to measure the physiological parameters such as blood pressure, temperature, glucose, lactic acid, EMG, acceleration, pressure, and position. Data from sensors is forwarded to intermediate node, from where it is transmitted to sink. An end user can access the required information available at sink via internet. To minimize energy consumption of the network, we utilize multi-hop mode of communication. A cost function is introduced to select the forwarder; node with high residual energy and least distance to sink has minimum cost function value and is selected. Residual energy parameter balances the energy consumption among the sensor nodes, and least distance improves packet delivery to sink because of reduced less path loss. We formulate the minimum energy consumption and high throughput problems as an Integer Linear Program. In order to support mobility, we also consider two body postures. Simulation results confirm the performance advantage of iM-SIMPLE compared to contemporary schemes in terms of maximizing stability period and throughput of the network.     

Graph-based video fingerprinting using double optimal projection

A double optimal projection method that involves projections for intra-cluster and inter-cluster dimensionality reduction are proposed for video fingerprinting. The video is initially set as a graph with frames as its vertices in a high-dimensional space. A similarity measure that can compute the weights of the edges is then proposed. Subsequently, the video frames are partitioned into different clusters based on the graph model. Double optimal projection is used to explore the optimal mapping points in a low-dimensional space to reduce the video dimensions. The statistics and geometrical fingerprints are generated to determine whether a query video is copied from one of the videos in the database. During matching, the video can be roughly matched by utilizing the statistics fingerprint. Further matching is thereafter performed in the corresponding group using geometrical fingerprints. Experimental results show the good performance of the proposed video fingerprinting method in robustness and discrimination.