Nonwoven Ni–NiO/carbon fibers for electrochemical water oxidation

The development of technologically efficient anodes for water oxidation is crucial to improve hydrogen production via water splitting. Electrodes based on metallic active sites dispersed in carbon matrices have been shown to be an attractive way to attain this goal. However, challenges remain to prevent catalyst agglomeration that otherwise can result in a decrease of performance over time.In this work, we report an alternative and efficient method to produce nickel-nickel oxide nanoparticles-embedded in carbon nanofibers (Ni–NiO/C), by the solution blow spinning (SBS) process. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses show the carbon nanofibrillar matrix as a robust support, with well-dispersed nickel nanoparticles on the surface. The responses of the linear scanning voltammetry, cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy demonstrate how a small fraction of nickel on the fiber surface (≈1.2–5.3%) is enough to promote substantial improvement in performance (η = 278 and 309 mV vs RHE for 10 mA cm^?2) and a significant turnover frequency (TOF) values of 1.38 (η = 278) and 1.30 s^?1 (η = 309). These promising results are correlated with a large amount of Ni³⁺ present on the fiber surfaces, as identified by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). This work provides a low-cost and rapid preparation technique that can be extended for the manufacture of a wide variety of electrodes based on metals supported on carbon nanofibers.     

The moderating effect of user experience on satisfaction with electronic banking: empirical evidence from the Spanish case

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the field of satisfaction research from the perspective of electronic banking users—a topic of great interest to financial institutions as they formulate business strategies. In this context, we analyze the possible moderating effect of user experience with the products of a specific institution. A comprehensive review of the scientific literature justified the development of a behavioral model that explains satisfaction using a set of constructs or endogenous variables and the moderating effect of experience. Data was collected from a self-administered Web survey in the authenticated section of the electronic banking service of a prestigious Spanish National financial institution. The analysis tests the relationship between the proposed variables (ease of access, trust, ease of use and usefulness) and demonstrates the moderating effect of electronic banking experience on them. The study was limited to the data of a single financial institution. Caution should therefore be exercised in generalizing the results. The research results provide a number of valuable conclusions for financial institutions. This paper is a pioneer study of satisfaction with electronic banking, especially with regard to the causal relationships between satisfaction and its main determinants.     

Openness and Technology Diffusion in Payment Systems: The Case of NAFTA

We study the relationship between openness and payment system development. In particular, we analyze how the existence of technology diffusion from a more developed country fosters a transformation of payment choice in a less developed country. We apply our analysis to Mexico. Economic growth in Mexico was not high enough to cause a transformation of payment choice observed in the data after 2001. We argue that the switch towards electronic payments can be attributed to openness and related payment technology spillovers from the US in the context of NAFTA.     

A numerical reconstruction method in inverse elastic scattering

In this paper a new numerical method for the shape reconstruction of obstacles in elastic scattering is proposed. Initially, the direct scattering problem for a rigid body and the mathematical setting for the corresponding inverse one are presented. Inverse uniqueness issues for the general case of mixed boundary conditions on the boundary of our obstacle, which are valid for a rigid body as well are established. The inversion algorithm based on the factorization method is presented into a suitable form and a new numerical scheme for the reconstruction of the shape of the scatterer, using far-field measurements, is given. In particular, an efficient Tikhonov parameter choice technique, called Improved Maximum Product Criterion (IMPC) and its linchpin within the framework of the factorization method is exploited. Our regularization parameter is computed via a fast iterative algorithm which requires no a priori knowledge of the noise level in the far-field data. Finally, the effectiveness of IMPC is illustrated with various numerical examples involving a kite, an acorn, and a peanut-shaped object.     

Correlating indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity in a sample of buildings in tropical climates

The incidence of several respiratory viral infections has been shown to be related to climate. Because humans spend most of their time indoors, measures of indoor climate, rather than outdoor climate, may be better predictors of disease incidence and transmission. Therefore, understanding the relationship between indoor and outdoor climate will help illuminate their influence on the seasonality of diseases caused by respiratory viruses. Indoor-outdoor relationships between temperature and humidity have been documented in temperate regions, but little information is available for tropical regions, where seasonal patterns of respiratory viral diseases differ. We have examined indoor-outdoor correlations of temperature, relative humidity (RH), and absolute humidity (AH) over a 1-year period in each of seven tropical cities. Across all cities, the average monthly indoor temperature was 25 ± 3°C (mean ± standard deviation) with a range of 20–30°C. The average monthly indoor RH was 66 ± 9% with a range of 50–78%, and the average monthly indoor AH was 15 ± 3 g/m³ with a range of 10–23 g/m³. Indoor AH and RH were linearly correlated with outdoor AH when the air conditioning (AC) was off, suggesting that outdoor AH may be a good proxy of indoor humidity in the absence of AC. All indoor measurements were more strongly correlated with outdoor measurements as distance from the equator increased. Such correlations were weaker during the wet season, especially when AC was in operation. These correlations will provide insight for assessing the seasonality of respiratory viral infections using outdoor climate data, which is more widely available than indoor data, even though transmission of these diseases mainly occurs indoors.     

Plant oil bioconversion into increase biological activity through lipases derived from wastes

The aim of this study was to show that abundant and inexpensive plant oils can be biotransformed to increase biological activity (antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxicity) through hydrolysis reaction catalysed by lipases. We tested homemade and commercial lipases through the biotransformation of nine different plant oils in forty different combinations. First, the chemical composition of the samples was investigated. Thereafter, biological tests were conducted to assess the antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of the sampled biotransformation products, as well as analyzed their influence on the viability of healthy and cancer cells. Summarising, sunflower, corn and olive oils modified by orange waste-obtained lipases presented the most promising results, reaching up to 90% of antioxidant activity increase and significant growth inhibition of bacteria colonies belonging to genera Escherichia, Listeria, Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas and Salmonella. In addition, those compounds affected human oral squamous carcinoma cells. The bioconversion of plant oils through lipases improves their biological properties and might be an option for biotechnological application.     

WYPiWYG Damage Mechanics for Soft Materials: A Data-Driven Approach

The conservative elastic behavior of soft materials is characterized by a stored energy function which shape is usually specified a priori, except for some material parameters. There are hundreds of proposed stored energies in the literature for different materials. The stored energy function may change under loading due to damage effects, but it may be considered constant during unloading–reloading. The two dominant approaches in the literature to model this damage effect are based either on the Continuum Damage Mechanics framework or on the Pseudoelasticity framework. In both cases, additional assumed evolution functions, with their associated material parameters, are proposed. These proposals are semi-inverse, semi-analytical, model-driven and data-adjusted ones. We propose an alternative which may be considered a non-inverse, numerical, model-free, data-driven, approach. We call this approach WYPiWYG constitutive modeling. We do not assume global functions nor material parameters, but just solve numerically the differential equations of a set of tests that completely define the behavior of the solid under the given assumptions. In this work we extend the approach to model isotropic and anisotropic damage in soft materials. We obtain numerically the damage evolution from experimental tests. The theory can be used for both hard and soft materials, and the infinitesimal formulation is naturally recovered for infinitesimal strains. In fact, we motivate the formulation in a one-dimensional infinitesimal framework and we show that the concepts are immediately applicable to soft materials.