Biofortification with selenium and lithium improves nutraceutical properties of major winery grapes in the Midwestern United States

Enriching the micronutrients, selenium (Se) and lithium (Li), in grapes to improve their nutraceutical properties were implemented by foliar application of organic fertiliser rich in Se and Li onto five grape cultivars. The effects of this biofortification on vine vigour, fruit quality, overall micronutrients and phenolic compounds also were investigated. Agronomic biofortification was found greatly increased the Se and Li content in the whole grape by multiple times, meanwhile it did not significantly affect the vine vigour and fruit quality of grapes. However, the biofortification did impact the Ionome (including all the mineral nutrients and trace elements) and phenolic compounds in grapes and this varied among cultivars. This study demonstrated foliar spray of organic Se/Li fertiliser was a very effective strategy to biofortify these micronutrients in grape berries, particularly in the skin, and therefore might be a promising strategy to increase the consumption and awareness of these grapes.     

A highly active composite electrocatalyst Ni–Fe–P–Nb2O5/NF for overall water splitting

This work demonstrates a facile Nb₂O₅-decorated electrocatalyst to prepare cost-effective Ni–Fe–P–Nb₂O₅/NF and compared HER & OER performance in alkaline media. The prepared electrocatalyst presented an outstanding electrocatalytic performance towards hydrogen evolution reaction, which required a quite low overpotential of 39.05 mV at the current density of ?10 mA cm^?2 in 1 M KOH electrolyte. Moreover, the Ni–Fe–P–Nb₂O₅/NF catalyst also has excellent oxygen evolution efficiency, which needs only 322 mV to reach the current density of 50 mA cm^?2. Furthermore, its electrocatalytic performance towards overall water splitting worked as both cathode and anode achieved a quite low potential of 1.56 V (10 mA cm^?2).     

Low-temperature synthesis of SiC nanowires with Ni catalyst

SiC nano wires were fabricated on the silicon substrate dipped with a layer of Ni catalyst at 900 ℃ by gas pressure annealing processing. The morphologies and crystal structures were determined by scanning electron microscopy(SEM), transmission electron microscopy(TEM)and X-ray diffraction(XRD). The results show that the assynthesized nanowires are β-SiC single crystalline with diameter range of 50-100 nm, and length of tens of micron by directly annealing at 900 ℃. The SiC nano wires grow along the [111] direction with highly uniform morphology. And the possible growth mechanism of SiC nano wires is proposed.The present work provides an efficient strategy for the production of high-quality SiC nano wires.     

In situ Raman spectroscopic study towards the growth and excellent HER catalysis of Ni/Ni(OH)2 heterostructure

The electrochemical water splitting to produce H₂ in high efficiency with earth-abundant-metal catalysts remains a challenge. Here, we describe a simple “cyclic voltammetry + ageing” protocol at room temperature to activate Ni electrode (AC-Ni/NF) for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), by which Ni/Ni(OH)₂ heterostructure is formed at the surface. In situ Raman spectroscopy reveals the gradual growth of Ni/Ni(OH)₂ heterostructure during the first 30 min of the aging treatment and combined with polarization measurements, it suggests a positive relation between the Ni/Ni(OH)₂ amount and HER performance of the electrode. The obtained AC-Ni/NF catalyst, with plentiful Ni–Ni(OH)₂ interfaces, exhibits remarkable performance towards HER, with the low overpotential of only 30 mV at a H₂-evolving current density of 10 mA/cm² and 153 mV at 100 mA/cm², as well as a small Tafel slope of 46.8 mV/dec in 1 M KOH electrolyte at ambient temperature. The excellent HER performance of the AC-Ni/NF could be maintained for at least 24 h without obvious decay. Ex situ experiments and in situ electrochemical-Raman spectroscopy along with density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that Ni/Ni(OH)₂ heterostructure, although partially reduced, can still persist during HER catalysis and it is the Ni–Ni(OH)₂ interface reducing the energy barrier of H1 adsorption thus promoting the HER performance.     

Fabrication and characterizations of Cr3+-doped ZnGa2O4 transparent ceramics with persistent luminescence

0.5 at.% Cr:ZnGa₂O₄ precursor was synthesized by the co-precipitation method with nitrates as raw materials, using ammonium carbonate as the precipitant. Low-agglomerated Cr:ZnGa₂O₄ powders with an average particle size of 43 nm were obtained by calcining the precursor at 900℃ for 4 h. Using the powders as starting materials, 0.5 at.% Cr:ZnGa₂O₄ ceramics with an average grain size of about 515 nm were prepared by presintering at 1150℃ for 5 h in air and HIP post-treatment at 1100℃ for 3 h under 200 MPa Ar. The in-line transmittance of 0.5 at.% Cr:ZnGa₂O₄ ceramics with a thickness of 1.3 mm reaches 59.5% at the wavelength of 700 nm. The Cr:ZnGa₂O₄ ceramics can be effectively excited by visible light and produce persistent luminescence at 700 nm. For Cr:ZnGa₂O₄ transparent ceramics, the brightness of afterglow was larger than 0.32 mcd/m² after 30 min, which is far superior to that of Cr:ZnGa₂O₄ persistent luminescence powders.     

A New NTRU-Type Public-Key Cryptosystem over the Binary Field

As the development of cloud computing and the convenience of wireless sensor netowrks, smart devices are widely used in daily life, but the security issues of the smart devices have not been well resolved. In this paper, we present a new NTRU-type public-key cryptosystem over the binary field. Specifically, the security of our scheme relies on the computational intractability of an unbalanced sparse polynomial ratio problem (DUSPR). Through theoretical analysis, we prove the correctness of our proposed cryptosystem. Furthermore, we implement our scheme using the NTL library, and conduct a group of experiments to evaluate the capabilities and consuming time of encryption and decryption. Our experiments result demonstrates that the NTRU-type public-key cryptosystem over the binary field is relatively practical and effective.     

Structural,optical and electrical properties of indium doped Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 thin films synthesized by the DC and RF reactive magnetron cosputtering

Element doping into the Cu₂ZnSn(S,Se)₄ (CZTSSe) absorber is an effective method to optimize the performance of thin film solar cells. In this study, the Cu₂In_xZn_1-xSn(S,Se)₄ (CIZTSSe) precursor film was deposited by magnetron cosputtering technique using indium (In) and quaternary Cu₂ZnSnS₄ (CZTS) as targets. Meanwhile, the In content was controlled using the direct current (DC) power on In target (P_In). A single kesterite CIZTSSe alloy was formed by successfully doping a small number of In³⁺ into the main lattice of CZTSSe. The partial Zn²⁺ cations were substituted by In³⁺ ions, resulting in improving properties of CZTSSe films. Morphological analysis showed that large grain CIZTSSe films could be obtained by doping In. The well-distributed, smooth, and dense film was obtained when the P_In was 30 W. The band gap of CIZTSSe could be continuously adjusted from 1.27 to 1.05 eV as P_In increased from 0 to 40 W. In addition, the CIZTSSe alloy thin film at P_In = 30 W exhibited the best p-type conductivity with Hall mobility of 6.87 cm²V^?1s^?1, which is a potential material as the absorption layer of high-performance solar cells.     

PIXE study on recovery of making-technology of Chinese Longquan celadon made in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279 CE)

Proton induced X-ray emission (PIXE) technique and factor analysis were used to study the recovery of making-technology of Chinese Longquan celadon made in the late Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279 CE). Based on factor analysis, for the raw material for body and the recipe for glaze, there is a close but slightly different relationship between these Longquan celadons unearthed from the core area of Dayao and the non-core area, despite all the Longquan celadons belong to the high-calcium-glaze system. The chemical compositions of most of the tentative body and glaze samples are very close to those of Longquan celadons unearthed from the core area of Dayao and the non-core area. This study can provide a guidance for recovery of making-technology of Longquan celandon.     

Deep Integration of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (InE) Education in Chinese University Classrooms

Recently, InE has been regarded as a popular education strategy in Chinese universities. However, problems have been exposed in the adoption of InE, for example, in InE courses and competitions. The purpose of this paper is to provide a possible solution to the problems, which is to organize effective InE courses by integrating InE with Inter-Course-level Problem-Based Learning (ICPBL). A detailed case is demonstrated by an ICPBL elective course design with deep integration of InE in the teaching, learning, and assessments. This paper contributes to a new curriculum design for promoting InE education in practically for Chinese universities.