Doping manganese into CsPb(Cl/Br)3 quantum dots glasses: Dual-color emission and super thermal stability

CsPbX₃ (X = Cl, Br, I) perovskite quantum dots (QDs) represent bright and tunable photoluminescence, it is regrettable that the air instability and poor water resistant properties prevent their application in optoelectronic devices. At the same time, the toxicity of lead is also a major factor restricting its development. As a consequence, we demonstrate the partial replacement of Pb with Mn through conventional melt-quenching and heat-treatment method preparation of Mn-doped CsPb(Cl/Br)₃ QD glass. Mn-doped CsPb(Cl/Br)₃ QD glass exhibits high luminescent intensity like QDs. It is important that Mn-doped CsPb(Cl/Br)₃ QD glass with Dual-Color maintained the same lattice structure like Mn-doped CsPb(Cl/Br)₃ QDs, and highly homogeneous spectral characteristics of Mn luminescence. The intensity and position of this Mn-related emission are also tunable by altering the experimental parameters, such as the Pb-to-Mn feed ratio, annealing temperature. More importantly, the as-prepared orange Mn-doped CsPb(Cl/Br)₃ QD glass was employed to fabricate white LEDs combined with a commercial Ce³⁺:Y₃Al₅O₁₂ phosphor-in-glass (Ce-PiG) on top of a InGaN blue chip. And the constructed WLEDs generate a warm white with an optimal luminous efficacy (LE) of 67.00 lm/W, a high CRI of 81.4, and a low CCT of 4902 K.     

Moulded pulp products manufacturing with thermoforming

For an effective optimization of pulp thermoforming and of the moulded pulp products manufactured by this process, a full understanding of the process physics combined with full knowledge of the pressing equipment is necessary. For this reason, in this Addendum, we clarify how the process parameters “Holding time,” “Vacuum time,” “Cycle time,” and “Temperature” were interpreted and subsequently defined for the analysis of the process and product‐related outputs of the thermoforming experiments.     

Effectiveness of portable HEPA air cleaners on reducing indoor PM2.5 and NH3 in an agricultural cohort of children with asthma: A randomized intervention trial

We conducted a randomized trial of portable HEPA air cleaners with pre-filters designed to also reduce NH₃ in non-smoking homes of children age 6-12 with asthma in Yakima Valley (Washington, USA). Participants were recruited through the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic asthma education program. All participants received education on home triggers while intervention families additionally received two HEPA cleaners (child's sleeping area, main living area). Fourteen-day integrated samples of PM_2.5 and NH₃ were measured at baseline and one-year follow-up. We fit ANCOVA models to compare follow-up concentrations in HEPA vs control homes, adjusting for baseline concentrations. Seventy-one households (36 HEPA, 35 control) completed the study. Most were single-family homes, with electric heat and stove, A/C, dogs/cats, and mean (SD) 5.3 (1.8) occupants. In the sleeping area, baseline geometric mean (GSD) PM_2.5 was 10.7 (2.3) μg/m³ (HEPA) vs 11.2 (1.9) μg/m³ (control); in the living area, it was 12.5 (2.3) μg/m³ (HEPA) vs 13.6 (1.9) μg/m³ (control). Baseline sleeping area NH₃ was 62.4 (1.6) μg/m³ (HEPA) vs 65.2 (1.8) μg/m³ (control). At follow-up, HEPA families had 60% (95% CI, 41%-72%; p < .0001) and 42% (19%-58%; p = .002) lower sleeping and living area PM_2.5, respectively, consistent with prior studies. NH₃ reductions were not observed.     

Rapid screening of DON contamination in whole wheat meals by Vis/NIR spectroscopy and computer vision coupling technology

This work intends to develop an online experimental system for screening of deoxynivalenol (DON) contamination in whole wheat meals by visible/near-infrared (Vis/NIR) spectroscopy and computer vision coupling technology. Spectral and image information of samples with various DON levels was collected at speed of 0.15 m s⁻¹ on a conveyor belt. The two-type data were then integrated and subjected to chemometric analysis. Discriminant analysis showed that samples could be classified by setting 1000 μg kg⁻¹ as the cut-off value. The best correct classified rate obtained in prediction was 93.55% based on fusion of spectral and image features, with reduced prediction uncertainty as compared to single feature. However, quantification of DON by quantitative analysis was not successful due to poor model performance. These results indicate that, although not accurate enough to provide conclusive result, this coupling technology could be adopted for rapid screening of DON contamination in cereals and feeds during processing.     

Red-shift and improved afterglow of Sr3Al2-xBxO5Cl2:Eu2+, Dy3+ phosphors via a cation substitution strategy

Sr₃Al_2-xB_xO₅Cl₂:Eu²⁺, Dy³⁺ (x = 0, 0.2, 0.4) long persistent phosphors were prepared via solid-state process. The pristine Sr₃Al₂O₅Cl₂:Eu²⁺, Dy³⁺ phosphor exhibits orange/red broad band emission around 609 nm, which can be attributed to the electric radiation transitions 4f⁶5 d¹→4f⁷ of Eu²⁺. Upon the same excitation, the B³⁺-doped Sr₃Al_2-xB_xO₅Cl₂:Eu²⁺, Dy³⁺ phosphors display red-shift from 609 nm to 625 nm with increasing B³⁺ concentrations. The XRD patterns show that Al³⁺ can be replaced by B³⁺ in the host lattice at the tetrahedral site, which causes lattice contraction and crystal field enhancement, and thereafter achieves the red-shift on the emission spectrum. The XPS investigation provides direct evidence of the dominant 2-valent europium in the phosphor, which can be ascribed for the broad band emission of the prepared phosphors. The afterglow of all phosphors show standard double exponential decay behavior, and the afterglow of Sr₃Al₂O₅Cl₂:Eu²⁺, Dy³⁺is rather weak, while the sample co-doped with B³⁺shows longer and stronger afterglow, as confirmed after the curve simulation. The analysis of thermally stimulated luminescence showed that, when B³⁺ is introduced, a much deeper trap is created, and the density of the electron trap is also significantly increased. As a result, B³⁺ ions caused redshift and enhanced afterglow for the Sr₃Al_2-xB_xO₅Cl₂:Eu²⁺, Dy³⁺ phosphor.     

Effect of steel slag on 3D concrete printing of geopolymer with quaternary binders

A new type of 3D-printable ‘one-part’ geopolymer was synthesized with fly ash (FA), granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS), steel slag (SS) and flue gas desulfurization gypsum (FGD). The effects of SS content (0–40%) on the rheological properties, 3D-printability, mechanical anisotropy and reaction kinetics of geopolymer were investigated. The yield stress and plastic viscosity monotonically decreased with the increasing SS content. Contrarily, the geopolymer with 10% of SS presented better extrudability, buildability and mechanical strength than those with 0, 20%, 30% and 40% of SS. This was mainly attributed to the conflicting influence of SS on geopolymerization, of which the OH^? produced by hydration of SS raised the alkalinity of the reaction system and accelerated the dissolution of SiO₄^4? and AlO₄^5?, while the low reactivity prohibited the following polymerization process. Furthermore, the 3D-printed geopolymer presented more compact microstructure and less mechanical anisotropy thanks to the crosslinking of morphologically complementary products, including N(C)-A-S-H, C–S–H, AFt and CH, formed via synergistic reaction of FA-GBFS-SS-FGD system.     

Learn from the past – sequentially one-to-one video deblurring network

With the growing availability of hand-held cameras in recent years, more and more images and videos are taken at any time and any place. However, they usually suffer from undesirable blur due to camera shake or object motion in the scene. In recent years, a few modern video deblurring methods are proposed and achieve impressive performance. However, they are still not suitable for practical applications as high computational cost or using future information as input. To address the issues, we propose a sequentially one-to-one video deblurring network (SOON) which can deblur effectively without any future information. It transfers both spatial and temporal information to the next frame by utilizing the recurrent architecture. In addition, we design a novel Spatio-Temporal Attention module to nudge the network to focus on the meaningful and essential features in the past. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art deblurring methods, both quantitatively and qualitatively, on various challenging real-world deblurring datasets. Moreover, as our method deblurs in an online manner and is potentially real-time, it is more suitable for practical applications.     

3D Structural Insights into β-Glucans and Their Binding Proteins

β(1,3)-glucans are a component of fungal and plant cell walls. The β-glucan of pathogens is recognized as a non-self-component in the host defense system. Long β-glucan chains are capable of forming a triple helix structure, and the tertiary structure may profoundly affect the interaction with β-glucan-binding proteins. Although the atomic details of β-glucan binding and signaling of cognate receptors remain mostly unclear, X-ray crystallography and NMR analyses have revealed some aspects of β-glucan structure and interaction. Here, we will review three-dimensional (3D) structural characteristics of β-glucans and the modes of interaction with β-glucan-binding proteins.     

Comment on“Hole-pinned defect-dipoles induced colossal permittivity in Bi doped SrTiO3ceramics with Sr deficiency”

With this contribution,as a comment to the publication in Journal of Mate rials Science&Technology 44(2020)54,reporting giant dielectric response,structural characterization and numerical simulations in Sr_(1-1.5 x)Bi_xTiO₃ceramics,we show that the re ported results are rather contradicting and not well analysed,while the suggested mechanism for the giant permittivity response is not valid or doubtful and has to be reconsidered.Moreover,many details and data are missing making impossible not only to call the obtained results very suitable for practical application but even to reproduce them.