A Green Metal–Organic Framework-Cyclodextrin MOF: A Novel Multifunctional Material Based Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Highly Efficient Mechanical Energy Harvesting

The naturally available cyclodextrin has opened up a wide range of research avenues because of its superior characteristics such as being non-toxic, biocompatible, and edible. The cyclodextrin is the green multifunctional material that can add to the triboelectric series and extend its self-powered applications. The ultrasonic synthesized cyclodextrin metal–organic framework (CD-MOF) designed using sodium as a metal ion and cyclodextrin as a ligand for the triboelectric nanogenerator is reported. The various detailed characterizations of the CD-MOFs give an insight into the properties of the synthesized material. The Kelvin probe force microscopy suggests three types of CD-MOFs, exhibiting a positive potential. As per the surface potential, the output of the various CD-MOF based TENG is varied as alpha CD MOF/Teflon > gamma CD-MOF/Teflon > beta CD-MOF/Teflon. The alpha CD MOF/Teflon TENG produces an electrical output of 152 V, 1.2 μA, and 14.3 nC, respectively. The fabricated device output is utilized for powering numerous low-power electronics through a capacitor and bridge rectifier circuit. The multiunit Z-shaped TENG device is attached to various surfaces such as the shoe heel and the backside of the school bag, and the corresponding energy harvesting response is demonstrated.     

Microstructure Evolution of Concentration Gradient Li[Ni0.75Co0.10Mn0.15]O2 Cathode for Lithium‐Ion Batteries

Detailed analysis of the microstructural changes during lithiation of a full‐concentration‐gradient (FCG) cathode with an average composition of Li[Ni_0.75Co_0.10Mn_0.15]O₂ is performed starting from its hydroxide precursor, FCG [Ni_0.75Co_0.10Mn_0.15](OH)₂ prior to lithiation. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) reveals that a unique rod‐shaped primary particle morphology and radial crystallographic texture are present in the prelithiation stage. In addition, TEM detected a two‐phase structure consisting of MnOOH and Ni(OH)₂, and crystallographic twins of MnOOH on the Mn‐rich precursor surface. The formation of numerous twins is driven by the lattice mismatch between MnOOH and Ni(OH)₂. Furthermore, the twins persist in the lithiated cathode; however, their density decrease with increasing lithiation temperature. Cation disordering, which influences cathode performance, is observed to continuously decrease with increasing lithiation temperature with a minimum observed at 790 °C. Consequently, lithiation at 790 °C (for 10 h) produced optimal discharge capacity and cycling stability. Above 790 °C, an increase in cation disordering and excessive coarsening of the primary particles lead to the deterioration of electrochemical properties. The twins in the FCG cathode precursor may promote the optimal primary particle morphology by retarding the random coalescence of primary particles during lithiation, effectively preserving both the morphology and crystallographic texture of the precursor.     

Tunable dual-wavelength-switching fiber grating laser

We report a tunable dual-wavelength-switching fiber grating laser by exploiting the large homogeneous gain broadening in erbium (Er)-doped fiber to suppress simultaneous lasing. Wavelength switching was accomplished through a novel design which has two overlapping cavities sharing a single-gain medium. The loss corresponding to one of the lasing wavelengths can be modulated via an optical chopper. Output power of about 6 mW and extinction ratio up to 50 dB were observed. The lasing wavelengths were tunable and switching was demonstrated for wavelength separations ranging from 0.35 to 23.5 nm     

On determination of the number of signals in spatially correlatednoise

A method for determining the number of signals in a correlated noise field using two well-separated linear arrays of receivers was given by Zhang and Wong (1993). In this paper, we improve on this method with the use of new penalty functions. Three criteria are given, and it is proved that for a large class of penalty functions, the probability of incorrect detections by each of the new criteria is exponentially decreasing when the moment-generating function of the squared Euclidean norm of the observation vector is finite at some point. It is also proved that with these new criteria, the estimates of the number of signals are strongly consistent. Randomized penalty functions for the three criteria, based on samples, are presented, and their uses are then shown to give consistent estimation of the number of signals. The finite sample behavior of the proposed approaches are studied by Monte Carte simulation     

Pump-induced thermal effects in Er-Yb fiber grating DBR lasers

Large absorption of 980-nm pumping in Er-Yb doped fibers causes significant temperature differentials along small length of the fibers. When pumped with 40 mW of power, unequal Bragg wavelength shifts of 0.25 and 0.16 mm were measured in the respective 6- and 10-mm-long Bragg reflectors constructed around the Er-Yb core of a 2.5-cm-long DBR laser. This causes large fluctuation in the laser's output power. Stable operation resumed with increased pump power. At 68 mW of pump power, 0.32-nm shift in lasing wavelength (corresponding to a temperature rise of 38°C) was measured in the distributed Bragg reflector fiber laser     

An efficient synthesis technique of tapered transmission line withloss and dispersion

A synthesis technique of lossy and dispersive tapered transmission line is presented that extends lossless cases suggested by Klopfenstein and others. A special optimization process based on the Fourier transform pair and generalized Taylor's procedure is performed to extract the exact null points of lobe-like frequency response in terms of the input reflection coefficient of lossy-tapered line in which the loss may be frequency dependent and distance dependent. The theory is verified by evaluation of a synthesized microstrip taper profile in the lossy case and is expected to be helpful for design of tapered line in the high-frequency microwave integrated circuits (MICs) with loss     

Nonlinear support vector machine visualization for risk factor analysis using nomograms and localized radial basis function kernels

Nonlinear classifiers, e.g., support vector machines (SVMs) with radial basis function (RBF) kernels, have been used widely for automatic diagnosis of diseases because of their high accuracies. However, it is difficult to visualize the classifiers, and thus difficult to provide intuitive interpretation of results to physicians. We developed a new nonlinear kernel, the localized radial basis function (LRBF) kernel, and new visualization system visualization for risk factor analysis (VRIFA) that applies a nomogram and LRBF kernel to visualize the results of nonlinear SVMs and improve the interpretability of results while maintaining high prediction accuracy. Three representative medical datasets from the University of California, Irvine repository and Statlog dataset-breast cancer, diabetes, and heart disease datasets-were used to evaluate the system. The results showed that the classification performance of the LRBF is comparable with that of the RBF, and the LRBF is easy to visualize via a nomogram. Our study also showed that the LRBF kernel is less sensitive to noise features than the RBF kernel, whereas the LRBF kernel degrades the prediction accuracy more when important features are eliminated. We demonstrated the VRIFA system, which visualizes the results of linear and nonlinear SVMs with LRBF kernels, on the three datasets.     

Mode couplings in superstructure fiber Bragg gratings

The spectral characteristics of superstructure fiber Bragg gratings are analyzed numerically based on the coupled mode theory, simultaneously taking into account the counterdirectional guided mode coupling, codirectional and counterdirectional claddings mode coupling. The theoretical results were compared with experimental data and very good agreement was obtained     

Improving Radio Frequency Transmission Properties of Graphene via Carrier Concentration Control toward High Frequency Transmission Line Applications

Graphene has been gradually studied as a high‐frequency transmission line material owing to high carrier mobility with frequency independence up to a few THz. However, the graphene‐based transmission lines have poor conductivity due to their low carrier concentration. Here, it is observed that the radio frequency (RF) transmission performance could be severely hampered by the defect‐induced scattering, even though the carrier concentration is increased. As a possible solution, the deposition of the amorphous carbon on the graphene is studied in the high‐frequency region up to 110 GHz. The DC resistance is reduced by as much as 60%, and the RF transmission property is also enhanced by 3 dB. Also, the amorphous carbon covered graphene shows stable performance under a harsh environment. These results prove that the carrier concentration control is an effective and a facile method to improve the transmission performance of graphene. It opens up the possibilities of using graphene as interconnects in the ultrahigh‐frequency region.