Modeling and design of 3-D MPPT for ultra low power RF energy harvesters

Radio-Frequency (RF) energy harvesting must cope with the limited availability and high variability of the energy source. In this paper, the modeling of an RF harvester for ultra low power environments is presented. A mathematical model based on theoretical analysis is developed. The model demonstrates that the maximum transferred power point is located in a three-dimensional space defined by the input capacitance, the output voltage, and the load resistance of the rectifier circuit. Moreover, the mathematical model returns results in substantial agreement with the SPICE simulation results, while guaranteeing a remarkable reduction of the required computation time. Furthermore, the paper reports the implementation of a mixed signal system for the 3-D MPPT, to be embedded in an RF harvester, in a 65 nm CMOS technology. The circuit exhibits a simulated power consumption lower than 100 nW, making this solution suitable for ultra low power harvesting.     

Finding high-impact interdisciplinary users based on friend discipline distribution in academic social networking sites

Scientometrics - Specialized academic social networking sites are gaining popularity in scientific communication. A huge volume of interdisciplinary information is generated when researchers from...     

Rate-distortion-complexity optimization for x265

Rate-distortion optimization (RDO) is conventionally based on the analysis of rate-distortion (R-D) curve to minimize the coding distortion under the coding bits constraint. However, it is necessary to consider the computational complexity in the RDO process. In this paper, we obtain the Confidence LEvel - Computational complexity (CLEC) curves which indicate the characteristics of coding tree units (CTUs). Based on the CLEC curves, a rate-distortion-complexity optimization (RDCO) algorithm is proposed to optimize R-D under given computational complexity and achieve the optimal coding performance for x265. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can achieve a wide range of encoding speed under a given quantization parameter (QP) whereas the original x265 can only achieve a few fixed encoding speeds, and the proposed algorithm can reduce the BD-rate and increase the BD-PSNR by 6.59% and 0.13 dB on average under the same requirements of encoding speeds as the original x265.     

A novel intelligent approach for yaw position forecasting in wind energy systems

Yaw control systems orientate the rotor of a wind turbine into the wind direction, optimize the wind power generated by wind turbines and alleviate the mechanical stresses on a wind turbine. Regarding the advantages of yaw control systems, a k-nearest neighbor classifier (k-NN) has been developed in order to forecast the yaw position parameter at 10-min intervals in this study. Air temperature, atmosphere pressure, wind direction, wind speed, rotor speed and wind power parameters are used in 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6-dimensional input spaces. The forecasting model using Manhattan distance metric for k = 3 uncovered the most accurate performance for atmosphere pressure, wind direction, wind speed and rotor speed inputs. However, the forecasting model using Euclidean distance metric for k = 1 brought out the most inconsistent results for atmosphere pressure and wind speed inputs. As a result of multi-tupled analyses, many feasible inferences were achieved for yaw position control systems. In addition, the yaw position forecasting model developed was compared with the persistence model and it surpassed the persistence model significantly in terms of the improvement percent.     

多壁碳纳米管负载FeS2的制备及脱汞性能分析

采用硝酸铁与硫脲在溶剂热反应条件下制备FeS₂，利用物理浸渍法将FeS₂负载至多壁碳纳米管（MWCNTs）上，借助扫描电镜（SEM）、X射线衍射（XRD）、X光电子能谱（XPS）等分析测试手段对制备样品的结构特性进行探究，通过固定床反应器研究模拟烟气氛围下吸附剂对烟气中单质汞的吸附特性。实验考察了不同FeS₂负载量、烟气初始汞浓度、床层温度以及O₂、NO和SO₂对吸附剂脱汞效率的影响。结果表明，制备出的FeS₂分散性较好，呈球状晶体，表面均匀覆盖着MWCNTs，成团簇状。当负载量为10%、反应温度为70℃时，FeS₂/MWCNTs的吸附效果最好，最高脱除效率能达到100%，60min后脱除效率仍有80.3%。TPD脱附曲线和XPS分析结果进一步表明烟气中的Hg⁰被氧化成Hg²⁺以HgS的形式附着在吸附剂表面，证实吸附剂以化学吸附为主。此外，汞脱除效率随初始汞浓度的增加而降低，汞吸附容量却随之增加，60min最高能达到5.1μg/g。酸性气体NO和SO₂的存在，占据了吸附剂表面的活性点位，不利于Hg⁰的吸附，但低浓度NO对吸附剂的整体效果影响不大，抗NO性能较好。     

Transition metal atom doped C2N as catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction: A density functional theory study

The catalytic mechanism and activity of transition metal atom doped C₂N (M-C₂N, M = Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu) for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) are investigated in detail by density functional theory method. All the screened M-C₂N are thermodynamically stable based on the binding energy calculations. The adsorption energy results indicate that the adsorption strength of O₂ and ORR intermediates are decreased in the order of Fe-C₂N ˃ Co-C₂N ˃ Ni-C₂N ˃ Cu-C₂N, in which the adsorption energy values on Cu-C₂N are most close to those on the Pt(111). Based on the relative energy diagram of ORR, the energetically favorable pathway on Fe-C₂N and Co-C₂N is direct 4e⁻ mechanism, in which the O–O bond is directly dissociated after the second electron transfer. While for Ni-C₂N and Cu-C₂N, the most favorable pathway is indirect 4e⁻ mechanism, in which the H₂O₂ is formed as the intermediate product. For all studied M-C₂N, the Ni-C₂N and Cu-C₂N hold better catalytic activity, which could attribute to the contribution of metal atom and part of its activated nitrogen atoms.     

Urban amenities for creativity: An analysis of location drivers for photography studios in Nanjing,China

Urban amenities have been an increasing concern in recent scholarly discussion for their crucial role in promoting local economic development, especially for the rapid rise of the creative class. However, due to the Anglophone dominance in current discourse on this issue, the urban amenities for creativity in the particular context of China remain under-explored. This paper focuses on the location drivers for a specific sector of creative industries, photography studios, based at city level in Nanjing, China. It is suggested that urban amenities for creativity present great power to explain the spatial concentration of photography studios in the old downtown area of Nanjing. In general, photography entrepreneurship is closely associated with landscape amenities, leisure and networking amenities, and accessibility, whereas it is only slightly related to educational amenities. More specifically, the urban amenities for creativity for photography in Nanjing refer in particular to city gardens, cultural heritage, catering places, subway stations, locations which are relatively different from the attractions for creativity that are highlighted by the studies based in West. We therefore propose a contextualized and categorized approach for the urban policy of creative cities.     

Generating video animation from single still image in social media based on intelligent computing

Bringing a single still image into reality is a challenging topic in computer animation because the driven and structural information in single still image is inadequate. In this paper, we present an image animating method for enhancing single still image in social media with virtual realistic and animated motions without prior information. We imitate the interaction between the active objects in an image and their neighboring passive objects. The existing actions in the image and the virtual specified force are employed to animate the active objects. Observing that the change between two subsequent motions of the active objects derives a motion tendency, we can calculate a virtual driving force based on the motion tendency. By virtue of the virtual driving force, the stochastic motion texture is used to animate the passive objects. Finally, the convolutional neural network is employed to optimize the virtual motion animations. In this way, the proposed method produces visually natural results while guaranteeing motion harmony between active objects and passive objects. To demonstrate the applicability and rationality of virtual animation driving force, our method generates several animations from still images in Social Media.     

Hollow porous nanocuboids cobalt-based metal–organic frameworks with coordination defects as anode for enhanced lithium storage

Journal of Materials Science - Controlling the morphology of metal–organic frameworks to improve their application in energy storage remains a particular challenge. In this work, hollow...