Synergistic effect of Fe and Ag co-doping on the persistent photoconductivity of vertical ZnO nanorods

Undoped, doped and co-doped vertically aligned ZnO nanorods (NRs) are synthesized using sonicated sol-gel immersion method. A significant variation in structural, morphological, optical and photoconductivity properties of ZnO NRs after incorporation of transition metal ions (Fe or/and Ag) is obtained. XRD analysis revealed that incorporation of Fe ameliorates while that of Ag deteriorates the c-axis growth of NRs. The diameter of the NRs is tuned from 236 nm to 103 nm. The Fe-doped ZnO NRs exhibit significantly thinner diameter, longer length, and highest aspect ratio. The doping and co-doping reduces the optical band gap of ZnO by 20 meV and 10 meV respectively. A reduction in near band edge emission whereas enhancement in defect-related-green-emission is obtained. Noticeable enhancement in the light harvesting efficiency and significant quenching of the persistent photoconductivity is obtained by co-doping.     

Role of Polyinosinic:Polycytidylic Acid-Induced Maternal Immune Activation and Subsequent Immune Challenge in the Behaviour and Microglial Cell Trajectory in Adult Offspring: A Study of the Neurodevelopmental Model of Schizophrenia

Multiple lines of evidence support the pathogenic role of maternal immune activation (MIA) in the occurrence of the schizophrenia-like disturbances in offspring. While in the brain the homeostatic role of neuron-microglia protein systems is well documented, the participation of the CX3CL1-CX3CR1 and CD200-CD200R dyads in the adverse impact of MIA often goes under-recognized. Therefore, in the present study, we examined the effect of MIA induced by polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid (Poly I:C) on the CX3CL1-CX3CR1 and CD200-CD200R axes, microglial trajectory (MhcII, Cd40, iNos, Il-1β, Tnf-α, Il-6, Arg1, Igf-1, Tgf-β and Il-4), and schizophrenia-like behaviour in adult male offspring of Sprague-Dawley rats. Additionally, according to the “two-hit” hypothesis of schizophrenia, we evaluated the influence of acute challenge with Poly I:C in adult prenatally MIA-exposed animals on the above parameters. In the present study, MIA evoked by Poly I:C injection in the late period of gestation led to the appearance of schizophrenia-like disturbances in adult offspring. Our results revealed the deficits manifested as a diminished number of aggressive interactions, presence of depressive-like episodes, and increase of exploratory activity, as well as a dichotomy in the sensorimotor gating in the prepulse inhibition (PPI) test expressed as two behavioural phenotypes (MIA_PPI-low and MIA_PPI-high). Furthermore, in the offspring rats subjected to a prenatal challenge (i.e., MIA) we noticed the lack of modulation of behavioural changes after the additional acute immune stimulus (Poly I:C) in adulthood. The important finding reported in this article is that MIA affects the expression and levels of the neuron-microglia proteins in the frontal cortex and hippocampus of adult offspring. We found that the changes in the CX3CL1-CX3CR1 axis could affect microglial trajectory, including decreased hippocampal mRNA level of MhcII and elevated cortical expression of Igf-1 in the MIA_PPI-high animals and/or could cause the up-regulation of an inflammatory response (Il-6, Tnf-α, iNos) after the “second hit” in both examined brain regions and, at least in part, might differentiate behavioural disturbances in adult offspring. Consequently, the future effort to identify the biological background of these interactions in the Poly I:C-induced MIA model in Sprague-Dawley rats is desirable to unequivocally clarify this issue.     

Applications of sketches in network traffic measurement: A survey

Accurate and timely network traffic measurement is essential for network status monitoring, network fault analysis, network intrusion detection, and network security management. With the rapid development of the network, massive network traffic brings severe challenges to network traffic measurement. However, existing measurement methods suffer from many limitations for effectively recording and accurately analyzing big-volume traffic. Recently, sketches, a family of probabilistic data structures that employ hashing technology for summarizing traffic data, have been widely used to solve these problems. However, current literature still lacks a thorough review on sketch-based traffic measurement methods to offer a comprehensive insight on how to apply sketches for fulfilling various traffic measurement tasks. In this paper, we provide a detailed and comprehensive review on the applications of sketches in network traffic measurement. To this end, we classify the network traffic measurement tasks into four categories based on the target of traffic measurement, namely cardinality estimation, flow size estimation, change anomaly detection, and persistent spreader identification. First, we briefly introduce these four types of traffic measurement tasks and discuss the advantages of applying sketches. Then, we propose a series of requirements with regard to the applications of sketches in network traffic measurement. After that, we perform a fine-grained classification for each sketch-based measurement category according to the technologies applied on sketches. During the review, we evaluate the performance, advantages and disadvantages of current sketch-based traffic measurement methods based on the proposed requirements. Through the thorough review, we gain a number of valuable implications that can guide us to choose and design proper traffic measurement methods based on sketches. We also review a number of general sketches that are highly expected in modern network systems to simultaneously perform multiple traffic measurement tasks and discuss their performance based on the proposed requirements. Finally, through our serious review, we summarize a number of open issues and identify several promising research directions.     

Fabrication and study of properties of the PLA/Sr2MgSi2O7:Eu2+, Dy3+ long-persistent luminescence composite thin films

In this paper, Sr₂MgSi₂O₇:Eu²⁺,Dy³⁺ (SMS) particles were first synthesized by sol–gel method and then modified with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APS) to improve their dispersibility and compatibility in the polylactic acid (PLA) matrix. The structure of pure SMS particles was analyzed by XRD and XPS. The properties of SMS particles before and after modification were characterized by FT-IR and SEM. PLA/SMS composite films containing 15 wt% of SMS particles were prepared by spin coating on silicon wafer. Their morphology and luminescence properties were examined. It was found that the composite films can be excited by a broad band from 330 nm to 425 nm with the highest excitation intensity at 360 nm. The fluorescent and phosphorescent emission bands of the composite films and SMS particles all have a major emission peak at 468 nm. Decay curves of the composite films have a similar tendency with that of the pure SMS particles, except for the lower intensity.     

Evaluating Schmid criterion for predicting preferential locations of persistent slip markings obtained after very high cycle fatigue for polycrystalline pure copper

Very high cycle fatigue carried out on pure copper polycrystals promotes early slip markings, labelled as slip markings of types II and III, localized close to grain or twin boundaries. In this work, we focus on whether Schmid criterion can predict the preferential sites of slip markings of types II and III and identify the active slip systems. Combining observations of slip markings and polycrystalline modeling, it is shown that considering pure cubic elastic behavior, maximum resolved shear stress as a criterion for type II slip markings preferential sites is 70% reliable criterion. Concerning slip markings of type III, the reliability falls to 30%. The role of cross slip is highlighted and a scenario rationalizing the stress amplitude conditions and sites to observe early slip markings of type II or III for copper polycrystals is proposed.     

Interval functional observers for time-delay systems with additive disturbances

This article considers the design of interval functional observers to estimate a linear function of the state vector of time-delay systems subject to both input and output additive disturbances. Two novel functional observers are proposed and designed such that they bound the set of all admissible values of a linear function of the state vector at each instant of time. By contrast to interval observers currently available in the literature, both observers proposed in this article utilize multiple delayed output measurement and have a more general structure. This trade-off feature overcomes some drawbacks in previous work and enables interval functional observers to be designed for a wider class of time-delay systems. Conditions for the existence of interval functional observers are derived and an effective design algorithm for computing unknown observer matrices is provided. Two illustrative examples are given to show the advantages and effectiveness of our design method.     

A novel wavelet transform based voltage sag/swell detection algorithm

This paper proposes a novel sag/swell detection algorithm based on wavelet transform (WT) operating even in the presence of flicker and harmonics in source voltage. The developed algorithm is the hybrid of Daubechies wavelets of order 2 (db2) and order 8 (db8) to detect voltage sag/swell with and without positive/negative phase jumps. The hybrid detection algorithm can detect the start and end times of voltage sag/swell with and without phase jumps within 0.5 ms and 1.15 ms, respectively. The performance of the proposed voltage sag/swell detection method is compared with the results of dq-transformation, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and Enhanced Phase Locked Loop (EPLL) based voltage sag/swell detection methods. The good robustness and faster processing time to detect balanced and unbalanced voltage sag/swell are provided using proposed method. With the proposed hybrid detection algorithm consisting of db2 and db8 wavelet functions, a robust sag/swell detection is achieved which can give precise and quick response. The performance of proposed hybrid algorithm is validated and confirmed through simulation studies using the PSCAD/EMTDC analysis program.     

Structural,optical and temperature dependent photoluminescence properties of Cr3+-activated LaGaO3 persistent phosphor for optical thermometry

Cr³⁺ doped LaGaO₃ phosphor was prepared by hydrothermal reaction method with post-annealing treatment. XRD pattern showed the pure orthorhombic phase of LaGaO₃ at an annealing temperature of 1000 °C. TEM image showed the particles in the range 40-120 nm. The bandgap energy and Urbach tail increased in the doped sample as compared to the undoped sample as estimated from UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectra. PL excitation spectra showed peaks in UV, blue and orange regions. The emission spectra showed broadband with peaks in the NIR region due to emission from ⁴T₂ and ²E states. The intermediate strength of the crystal field has been calculated from the estimated spectroscopic parameter. The average lifetime was found to be in the ms range. Afterglow decay was also recorded. From the low-temperature PL, the zero phonon line, stokes shift energy, vibrational energy and Huang-Rhys parameter were calculated. With rising the temperature, PL emission peak intensity and lifetime values decreased and FWHM increased because of increased numbers of electrons in ⁴T₂ state and increasing non-radiative transition. Temperature-dependent peak intensity ratios and lifetime values were utilized for temperature sensing applications in below room temperature and above room temperature. The results indicate the possibility of present phosphor to be used as optical nanothermometer.     

A review of phosphorescent and fluorescent phosphors for fingerprint detection

Currently, the efficient detection of fingerprints is essential for the crime investigations. Revealing fingerprints is commonly achieved with fluorescent organic compounds but they are not efficient for fingerprint detection on porous or reflective surfaces. In order to solve the problem of collecting fingerprints on porous/reflective surfaces, inorganic phosphors have been employed, since they have characteristics of variable color emission, afterglow, high chemical stability and nano-size, which allow the fingerprint detection on any porous or non-porous surfaces. Due to these last properties, this review presents a summary about the use of phosphorescent and fluorescent phosphors for the detection of latent fingerprints. First, we discussed the main physical and chemical characteristics of the fingerprints which permit their detection and collection from any surface. After this, we presented the main morphological, structural and luminescent properties of the phosphorescent and fluorescent phosphors that allow their use for fingerprint detection. Later, we demonstrated with pictures of fingerprints (with and without light emission from the phosphors deposited on them) that both, phosphorescent and fluorescent phosphors can be used to visualize fingerprints with high resolution and high contrast without interference of the background surface, which is ideal for its collection and registration in the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). We believe that this review could be useful to understand how to select an appropriate phosphorescent or fluorescent material for fingerprint detection depending on the type of surface (porous or non-porous, reflective or not reflective) where the fingerprint is deposited.     

The color-tunable persistent luminescence of Pr3+-activated Ca2Sb2O7 with double anti-counterfeiting potentiality

The persistent luminescence (PersL) materials Ca₂Sb₂O₇:Pr³⁺ were prepared by traditional high-temperature solid-state method. We systematically investigated the crystal structure, band structure, photoluminescence, PersL performance by X-ray diffraction diagrams, Materials Studio calculation, photoluminescence (PL) spectra, PersL spectra and CIE coordinate analysis. The PL and PersL are attributed to the Sb⁵⁺ → O^2? transition of the matrix and the 4f-4f transition of Pr³⁺ ion. For the sake of explaining the impact of various traps on PersL performance, thermoluminescence (TL) tests were performed on the optimal sample after diverse charging and discharging times. It was concluded that shallow traps have priority over deep traps in capturing electrons, and the electrons in the shallow traps were preferentially released. The highlight of this work is that the PL and PersL color can be adjusted by regulating the Pr³⁺ doping concentration when these samples were excited by a single excitation wavelength, so as to achieve a double anti-counterfeiting effect. Furthermore, the color change of PersL is different from that of PL. The luminescent patterns can make a difference as the change of concentration and time, forming a dynamic anti-counterfeiting mark that distinguishes in color and time. Thus, Ca₂Sb₂O₇:Pr³⁺ has a bright application prospect in dynamic anti-counterfeiting field.