Superradiant Emission from Coherent Excitons in van Der Waals Heterostructures

Recent advancements in isolation and stacking of layered van der Waals materials have created an unprecedented paradigm for demonstrating varieties of 2D quantum materials. Rationally designed van der Waals heterostructures composed of monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) and few-layer hBN show several unique optoelectronic features driven by correlations. However, entangled superradiant excitonic species in such systems have not been observed before. In this report, it is demonstrated that strong suppression of phonon population at low temperature results in a formation of a coherent excitonic-dipoles ensemble in the heterostructure, and the collective oscillation of those dipoles stimulates a robust phase synchronized ultra-narrow band superradiant emission even at extremely low pumping intensity. Such emitters are in high demand for a multitude of applications, including fundamental research on many-body correlations and other state-of-the-art technologies. This timely demonstration paves the way for further exploration of ultralow-threshold quantum-emitting devices with unmatched design freedom and spectral tunability.     

Research and development of liquid hydrogen (LH2) temperature monitoring system for marine applications

Monitoring the temperature in liquid hydrogen (LH₂) storage tanks on ships is important for the safety of maritime navigation. In addition, accurate temperature measurement is also required for commercial transactions. Temperature and pressure define the density of liquid hydrogen, which is directly linked to trading interests. In this study, we developed and tested a liquid hydrogen temperature monitoring system that uses platinum resistance sensors with a nominal electrical resistance of approximately 1000 Ω at room temperature, PT-1000, for marine applications. The temperature measurements were carried out using a newly developed temperature monitoring system under different pressure conditions. The measured values are compared with a calibrated reference PT-1000 resistance thermometer. We confirm a measurement accuracy of ±50 mK in a pressure range of 0.1 MPa–0.5 MPa.     

The addition of spices and herbs to vegetables in the National School Lunch Program increased vegetable intake at an urban,economically-underserved,and predominantly African-American high school

Vegetable intake is far below recommendations among African-American adolescents living in economically-underserved urban areas. While the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) helps overcome access barriers, vegetable intake remains challenging and novel interventions are required. A two-year, multi-phase, school-based intervention was conducted at an urban, economically-underserved, and predominantly African-American high school in Baltimore, Maryland to determine whether stakeholder-informed addition of spices and herbs to NSLP vegetables would increase intake. The stakeholder engagement phase included assessment of NSLP vegetable attitudes/preferences among 43 school stakeholders and subsequent student sensory testing. The second phase was conducted in the school cafeteria and consisted of eight weeks comparing student intake of typical vegetable recipes versus otherwise-identical recipes with spices and herbs. 4570 student lunch plates were included in the vegetable intake comparison. Vegetable intake was measured by lunch tray plate waste. Willingness to try vegetables was assessed by the difference between plate waste and estimated mean vegetable served weight. Intake of typical vegetable recipes and vegetable recipes with spices and herbs was compared with student’s t-test. Chi-square test was used to compare willingness to try vegetables. Total vegetable intake was 18.2% higher (8.22 g per meal, p < 0.0001) with spices and herbs than with typical recipes. There were no differences in trying vegetables with spices and herbs, although student-led advocacy was associated with increased trying vegetables with spices and herbs (78.8% with advocacy, 67.5% without advocacy, p < 0.0001). The addition of spices and herbs to vegetables in the NSLP was feasible and associated with small increases in vegetable intake at an urban, economically-underserved, and predominantly African-American high school.     

FeOOH–CoS composite catalyst with high catalytic performances for oxygen evolution reaction at high current density

Water electrolysis is an efficient approach for high-purity hydrogen production. However, the anodic sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) always needs high overpotential and thus brings about superfluous electricity cost of water electrolysis. Therefore, exploiting highly efficient OER electrocatalysts with small overpotential especially at high current density will undoubtedly boost the development of industrial water electrolysis. Herein, we used a simple hydrothermal method to prepare a novel FeOOH–CoS nanocomposite on nickel foam (NF). The as-prepared FeOOH–CoS/NF catalyst displays an excellent OER performance with extremely low overpotentials of 306 and 329 mV at 500 and 1000 mA cm⁻² in 1.0 M KOH, respectively. In addition, the FeOOH–CoS/NF catalyst can maintain excellent catalytic stability for more than 50 h, and the OER catalytic activity shows almost no attenuation no matter after 1000 repeated CV cycles or 50 h of stability test. The high catalytic activity and stability have exceeded most non-noble metal electrocatalysts reported in literature, which makes the FeOOH–CoS/NF composite catalyst have promising applications in the industrial water electrolysis.     

Y4.67Si3O13-based phosphors: Structure,morphology and upconversion luminescence for optical thermometry

How to improve the sensitivity of the temperature-sensing luminescent materials is one of the most important objects currently. In this work, to obtain high sensitivity and learn the corresponding mechanism, the rare earth (RE) ions doped Y_4.67Si₃O₁₃ (YS) phosphors were developed by solid-state reaction. The phase purity, structure, morphology and luminescence characteristics were evaluated by XRD, TEM, emission spectra, etc. The change of the optical bandgaps between the host and RE-doped phosphors was found, agreeing with the calculation results based on density-functional theory. The temperature-dependence of the upconversion (UC) luminescence revealed that a linear relationship exists between the fluorescence intensity ratio of Ho³⁺ and temperature. The theoretical resolution was evaluated. High absolute (0.083 K⁻¹) and relative (3.53% K⁻¹ at 293 K) sensitivities have been gained in the YS:1%Ho³⁺, 10%Yb³⁺. The effect of the Yb³⁺ doping concentration and pump power on the sensitivities was discussed. The pump-power–dependence of the UC luminescence indicated the main mechanism for high sensitivities in the YS:1%Ho³⁺, 10%Yb³⁺. Moreover, the decay-lifetime based temperature sensing was also evaluated. The above results imply that the present phosphors could be promising candidates for temperature sensors, and the proposed strategies are instructive in exploring other new temperature sensing luminescent materials.     

Practical in-storage interventions to control foodborne pathogens on fresh produce

Although tremendous efforts have been made to ensure fresh produce safety, various foodborne outbreaks and recalls occur annually. Most of the current intervention strategies are evaluated within a short timeframe (less than 1 h), leaving the behavior of the remaining pathogens unknown during subsequent storages. This review summarized outbreak and recall surveillance data from 2009 to 2018 obtained from government agencies in the United States to identify major safety concerns associated with fresh produce, discussed the postharvest handling of fresh produce and the limitations of current antimicrobial interventions, and reviewed the intervention strategies that have the potential to be applied in each storage stage at the commercial scale. One long-term (up to 12 months) prepacking storage (apples, pears, citrus among others) and three short-term (up to 3 months) postpacking storages were identified. During the prepacking storage, continuous application of gaseous ozone at low doses (≤1 ppm) is a feasible option. Proper concentration, adequate circulation, as well as excess gas destruction and ventilation systems are essential to commercial application. At the postpacking storage stages, continuous inhibition can be achieved through controlled release of gaseous chlorine dioxide in packaging, antimicrobial edible coatings, and biocontrol agents. During commercialization, factors that need to be taken into consideration include physicochemical properties of antimicrobials, impacts on fresh produce quality and sensory attributes, recontamination and cross-contamination, cost, and feasibility of large-scale production. To improve fresh produce safety and quality during storage, the collaboration between researchers and the fresh produce industry needs to be improved.     

Hysteresis of the water retention curves of geosynthetic clay liners in the high suction range

This paper examines two needle-punched geosynthetic clay liners' water retention behaviour at high suction ranges using the vapour equilibrium technique where super-saturated salt solutions controlled the relative humidity. This study shows that the bentonite form and its mineralogy affect the absorption/desorption of GCLs and their corresponding water retention curves. In particular, a granular bentonite-based GCL was found to absorb more and release less water than a powdered bentonite-based GCL due to its higher montmorillonite content and larger pores. The water retention curves of both GCLs exhibited very little hysteretic behaviour at high suction. Repeated wetting-drying cycles shifted the WRCs of both GCLs slightly downward with minimal impact on their degree of hysteresis.     

Passivity‐based adaptive control of a 2‐DOF serial robot manipulator with temperature dependent joint frictions

Mechanical systems are always suffering from the effects of temperature dependent friction forces where the system is operated in a wide range of temperature. Temperature and its variation play an important role in friction force in mechanical systems. If it is not compensated, it will tend to unwanted consequences, including steady‐state errors, limit cycling, and hunting. Therefore, it is necessary to take the temperature effects into account. This has been a strong motivation for the researchers to work on temperature effects on joint friction. In this paper, an adaptive compensation (control) scheme is proposed and applied to a 2‐degree‐of‐freedom serial robot manipulator by taking the temperature effects into account on the joints friction. In the proposed control scheme, the temperature is not required to be sensed. In this paper, joint friction is described by LuGre dynamic model with temperature dependent parameters. These parameters are described by some functions with unknown temperature dependent terms. According to the mathematical and practical concepts, the temperature dependent friction is decomposed into a viscous term and a disturbance term. An adaptive controller is designed to compensate the friction effect and it is shown that the proposed controller relaxes the condition for a priori knowledge about the environment characteristics, including the upper and lower bounds of the environment temperature and the parameters of the functions, describing the temperature dependent joint frictions. The stability and convergence of the joint position and velocity are proved in the sense of Lyapunov and then the proposed method is confirmed by the simulations.     

Human responses to high levels of carbon dioxide and air temperature

In this study, 30 subjects were exposed to different combinations of air temperature (T_a: 24, 27, and 30°C) and CO₂ level (8000, 10 000, and 12 000 ppm) in a high-humidity (RH: 85%) underground climate chamber. Subjective assessments, physiological responses, and cognitive performance were investigated. The results showed that as compared with exposure to T_a = 24°C, exposure to 30°C at all CO₂ levels caused subjects to feel uncomfortably warm and experience stronger odor intensity, while increased mental effort and greater intensity of acute health symptoms were reported. However, no significant effects of T_a on task performance or physiological responses were found. This indicated that subjects had to exert more effort to maintain their performance in an uncomfortably warm environment. Increasing CO₂ from 8000 to 12 000 ppm at all T_a caused subjects to report higher rates of headache, fatigue, agitation, and feeling depressed, although the results were statistically significant only at 24 and 27°C. The text typing performance and systolic blood pressure (SBP) decreased significantly at this exposure, whereas diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and thermal discomfort increased significantly. These effects suggest higher arousal/stress. No significant interaction effect of T_a and CO₂ concentration on human responses was identified.     

钢制导热油烘缸的数值模拟与结构优化

针对钢制导热油烘缸在工作时出现工作表面温度分布不均匀、温差大等情况，采用三维建模和模拟仿真方法对钢制导热油烘缸的结构进行优化。本研究主要从3个方面对钢制导热油烘缸进行结构改进，分别是改变循环油路通道数量，改变进油槽与出油槽上孔的排列方式，改变循环油路的结构。研究结果表明，相对其他烘缸结构，具有循环油路通道数量为20个、进油槽与出油槽上孔为单排排列、循环油路两两相通的钢制导热油烘缸的性能更好，可以达到工作表面温度分布均匀、温差控制在±5℃以内的目的。