Heterogeneous feature ensemble modeling with stochastic configuration networks for predicting furnace temperature of a municipal solid waste incineration process

Neural Computing and Applications - Considering the accuracy, generalization ability, stability, and training efficiency of a furnace temperature model in the process of municipal solid waste...     

Comparison of gas sensing properties based on hollow and porous α-Fe<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript> nanotubes

Hollow and porous α-Fe₂O₃ nanotubes were successfully synthesized by single nozzle electrospinning method followed by annealing treatment. The crystal structures and morphologies of the as-prepared materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. The as-prepared materials were applied to construct gas sensor devices which gas sensing properties were further investigated. The obtained results revealed that porous α-Fe₂O₃ nanotube gas sensors exhibit a markedly enhanced gas sensing performance compared with hollow α-Fe₂O₃ nanotube gas sensors, which was about three times higher to 100 ppm acetone at 240 °C. Interestingly, hollow and porous α-Fe₂O₃ nanotube gas sensors both showed fast response–recovery time and good selectivity, but the porous ones possessed the shorter recovery time. The improved properties could be attributed to the unique morphology of porous nanotubes. Thus, further improvement of performance in metal-oxide-semiconductors materials could be realized by preparation the unique porous structures of nanotubes. Moreover, it is expected that porous metal-oxide-semiconductors nanotubes could be further design as promising candidates for gas sensing materials.     

The interlaminar shear failure characteristics of asphalt pavement coupled heating cables

Nowadays, heating cables are used as heat sources for heating pavements in practical engineering. However, there is a contradiction between the snow melting function and the interlaminar stability of heating pavement. In order to solve the contradiction, the interlaminar failure behavior of asphalt mixture coupled heating cables specimen (AMCS) was researched, through experiments and the finite element method. Under the different conditions of heating cables and rolling times, a series of direct shear tests was performed at the interface of AMCS, to compare the interlaminar stability of three different AMCS. Meanwhile, based on the bilinear cohesive zone model and coulomb friction model a 2D finite element model was established, to simulate this shear failure processes and make up for the limitations of the experiment. According to above test and simulation results, the failure mechanism and the weakest interface in AMCS were found, and the influence of the heating cable’s diameter and embedded spacing on the interlaminar shear strength were found. Then, a modified coulomb theorem model was proposed to predict the shear strength of the AMCS. This research enriches the design theory of the heating pavement and it has great significance for its structural design of heating asphalt pavement.     

Monitoring the Dynamic Process of Formation of Plasmonic Molecular Junctions during Single Nanoparticle Collisions

The capability to study the dynamic formation of plasmonic molecular junction is of fundamental importance, and it will provide new insights into molecular electronics/plasmonics, single‐entity electrochemistry, and nanooptoelectronics. Here, a facile method to form plasmonic molecular junctions is reported by utilizing single gold nanoparticle (NP) collision events at a highly curved gold nanoelectrode modified with a self‐assembled monolayer. By using time‐resolved electrochemical current measurement and surface‐enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy, the current changes and the evolution of interfacial chemical bonding are successfully observed in the newly formed molecular tunnel junctions during and after the gold NP “hit‐n‐stay” and “hit‐n‐run” collision events. The results lead to an in‐depth understanding of the single NP motion and the associated molecular level changes during the formation of the plasmonic molecular junctions in a single NP collision event. This method also provides a new platform to study molecular changes at the single molecule level during electron transport in a dynamic molecular tunnel junction.     

A Two‐Stage Annealing Strategy for Crystallization Control of CH3NH3PbI3 Films toward Highly Reproducible Perovskite Solar Cells

The solvent‐engineering method is widely used to fabricate top‐performing perovskite solar cells, which, however, usually exhibit inferior reproducibility. Herein, a two‐stage annealing (TSA) strategy is demonstrated for processing of perovskite films, namely, annealing the intermediate phase at 60 °C for the first stage then at 100 °C for the second stage. Compared to conventional direct annealing temperature (DHA) at 100 °C, using this strategy, MAPbI₃ films become more controllable, leading to superior film uniformity and device reproducibility with the champion device efficiency reaching 19.8%. More specifically, the coefficient of variation of efficiency for 49 cells is reduced to 5.9%, compared to 9.8% for that using DHA. The TSA process is carefully studied using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, and UV–vis absorption spectroscopy. It is found that in comparison with DHA the formation of hydrogen bonding and crystallization of perovskite are much slower and can be better controlled when using TSA. The improvements in film uniformity and device reproducibility are attributed to: 1) controllable MAPbI₃ crystal growth stemming from the progressive formation of hydrogen bonding between methylammonium and halide; 2) suppression of intermediate phase film dewetting, which is believed to be due to its decreased mobility at the initial low‐temperature annealing stage.     

Large capacitance and fast polarization response of thin electrolyte dielectrics by spin coating for two-dimensional MoS2 devices

Nano Research - A spin-coating method was applied to obtain thinner and smoother PEO/LiClO4 polymer electrolyte films (EFs) with a lower level of crystallization than those obtained using a...     

Synthesis of ultrathin semicircle-shaped copper nanowires in ethanol solution for low haze flexible transparent conductors

Nano Research - Copper nanowires (CuNWs) are becoming an indispensable item for next-generation transparent optical devices due to their excellent conductivity and transparency. In this work,...     

Preparation of Porous Silver Nanowires-Melamine Formaldehyde Hybrid Composite Materials and Their Electromagnetic Shielding and Flame-Retardant Properties

Along with the booming development of communication technology and electronic equipment, higher requirements of flame-retardant and EMI shielding performances for electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials are put forward. Herein, the ultralight and porous silver nanowires (AgNWs)-melamine formaldehyde (MF) hybrid composite with unique micro-/nanostructure is developed by a facile dip-coating method, which uses the AgNWs as 1D conductive coating and MF foam (MF foam) as 3D skeleton template. Benefiting from the unique porous micro-/nanostructure, the resultant hybrid composite displays low density, excellent EMI shielding performances, and superior flame-retardant property. The EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) and specific EMI SE (SSEt) of the hybrid composite in X-band (8.2–12.4 GHz) can be up to 77 dB and 26971.4 dB cm⁻² g⁻¹, respectively. At the same time, the hybrid composite also passes the vertical burning test and shows an increased LOI value of 40.6%. The combination of flame-retardant and EMI shielding performances for EMI shielding materials makes the AgNWs-MF hybrid composite great application potential in civil and military fields. This work provides a new guide for the design of multifunctional high-performance EMI shielding materials.     

Container-Based Internet of Vehicles Edge Application Migration Mechanism

Internet of Vehicles (IoV) applications integrating with edge computing will significantly drive the growth of IoV. However, the contradiction between the high-speed mobility of vehicles, the delay sensitivity of corresponding IoV applications and the limited coverage and resource capacity of distributed edge servers will pose challenges to the service continuity and stability of IoV applications. IoV application migration is a promising solution that can be supported by application containerization, a technology forseamless cross-edge-server application migration without user perception. Therefore, this paper proposes the container-based IoV edge application migration mechanism, consisting of three parts. The first is the migration trigger determination algorithm for cross-border migration and service degradation migration, respectively, based on trajectory prediction and traffic awareness to improve the determination accuracy. The second is the migration target decision calculation model for minimizing the average migration time and maximizing the average service time to reduce migration times and improve the stability and adaptability of migration decisions. The third is the migration decision algorithm based on the improved artificial bee colony algorithm to avoid local optimal migration decisions. Simulation results show that the proposed migration mechanism can reduce migration times, reduce average migration time, improve average service time and enhance the stability and adaptability of IoV application services.     

Evaluating medication response in ADHD: cognitive, behavioral, and single-subject methodology

We introduce a novel application for linkage analysis: using bone marrow donor-recipient sib pairs to search for genes influential in graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a major cause of morbidity and mortality following allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. In particular, we show that transplant sib pairs in which the recipient developed severe GVHD can be used to map genes in the same way as traditional discordant (affected/unaffected) sib pairs (DSPs). For a plausible GVHD model, we demonstrate that the transplant/discordant sib pair analog of the "possible triangle test" [Holmans (1993) Am J Hum Genet 52:362-374] has similar power to that of the simpler "restricted test" proposed by Risch [(1990b) Am J Hum Genet 46:229-241; (1992) Am J Hum Genet 51:673-675]. Moreover, we show that the restricted test has superior power in much of the DSP possible triangle and significantly inferior power in only a small region. Thus, we conclude that the restricted test is preferable for localizing genes with transplant/discordant sib pairs. Finally, we examine the effects of heterogeneity on the power to detect GVHD loci and demonstrate the gain in efficiency by dividing the sample into genetically more homogeneous subgroups.