High‐Performance 2.6 V Aqueous Asymmetric Supercapacitors based on In Situ Formed Na0.5MnO2 Nanosheet Assembled Nanowall Arrays

The voltage limit for aqueous asymmetric supercapacitors is usually 2 V, which impedes further improvement in energy density. Here, high Na content Birnessite Na_0.5MnO₂ nanosheet assembled nanowall arrays are in situ formed on carbon cloth via electrochemical oxidation. It is interesting to find that the electrode potential window for Na_0.5MnO₂ nanowall arrays can be extended to 0–1.3 V (vs Ag/AgCl) with significantly increased specific capacitance up to 366 F g^?1. The extended potential window for the Na_0.5MnO₂ electrode provides the opportunity to further increase the cell voltage of aqueous asymmetric supercapacitors beyond 2 V. To construct the asymmetric supercapacitor, carbon‐coated Fe₃O₄ nanorod arrays are synthesized as the anode and can stably work in a negative potential window of ?1.3 to 0 V (vs Ag/AgCl). For the first time, a 2.6 V aqueous asymmetric supercapacitor is demonstrated by using Na_0.5MnO₂ nanowall arrays as the cathode and carbon‐coated Fe₃O₄ nanorod arrays as the anode. In particular, the 2.6 V Na_0.5MnO₂//Fe₃O₄@C asymmetric supercapacitor exhibits a large energy density of up to 81 Wh kg^?1 as well as excellent rate capability and cycle performance, outperforming previously reported MnO₂‐based supercapacitors. This work provides new opportunities for developing high‐voltage aqueous asymmetric supercapacitors with further increased energy density.     

Influence of Mn Ions’ Insertion in Pseudo-Tetragonal Phased CaBi4Ti4O15-Based Ceramics for Highly Efficient Energy Storage Devices and High-Temperature Piezoelectric Applications

In the present era of advanced technology, the surge for suitable multifunctional materials capable of operating above 300 °C has increased for the utilization of high-temperature piezoelectric devices. For this purpose, a pseudo-tetragonal phased CaBi₄Ti_3.98 (Nb_0.5Fe_0.5)_0.02O₁₅:xwt%MnO₂ (CBTNF:xMn), with x = 0–0.20, ceramic system has been engineered for the investigation of structural, ferroelectric, dielectric and high-temperature-dependent piezoelectric properties. XRD analysis confirms that low-content Mn-ion insertion at the lattice sites of CBTNF does not distort the pseudo-tetragonal phase lattice of CBTNF:xMn ceramics, but enhances the functional behavior of the ceramic system, specifically at x = 0.15 wt%Mn. Compared to pure CBT and CBTNF ceramics, CBTNF:0.15Mn has demonstrated a highly dense relative density (~96%), a saturated polarization (P_S) of 15.89 µC/cm², a storage energy density (W_ST) of ~1.82 J/cm³, an energy-conversion efficiency (ƞ) of ~51% and an upgraded piezoelectric behavior (d₃₃) of 27.1 pC/N at room temperature. Sharp temperature-dependent dielectric constant (ε_r) peaks display the solid ferroelectric behavior of the CBTNF:0.15Mn sample with a Curie temperature (T_C) of 766 °C. The thermally stable piezoelectric performance of the CBTNF:0.15Mn ceramic was observed at 600 °C, with just a 0.8% d₃₃ loss (25 pC/N). The achieved results signify that multi-valence Mn ions have effectively intercalated at the lattice sites of the pseudo-tetragonal phased CBTNF counterpart and enhanced the multifunctional properties of the ceramic system, proving it to be a durable contender for utilization in energy-storage applications and stable high-temperature piezoelectric applications.     

Groundwater contamination risks with manure-borne microorganisms under different land-application options

There is a huge potential for recycling animal manure in agricultural farms, but fecal microorganisms from land-applied animal manure can join shallow groundwater through leaching especially in alluvial formations. Thus, this study investigated the leaching rate of total viable count (TVC) below a 1.1-m soil depth in a field lysimeter planted with rice–maize–rice rotation, where the rotation received different treatments, i.e., chemical fertilizer, dry manure, fresh manure, alternate wetting and drying (AWD) irrigation, and traditional irrigation. Leachate samples of six major irrigation/rainfall events were collected and analyzed for TVC concentration. In the Aman rice season, manure application had a significantly higher TVC leaching (5.5 × 10⁶ colony forming units (CFU) per milliliter) than the no-manure treatment (8.2 × 10⁴ CFU/mL). In the maize season, manure application increased more than one log-scale of TVC leaching concentration. A higher concentration of TVC leaching (3 × 10⁵ CFU/mL) was observed even after 93 d of fresh manure application. The fresh manure had a higher TVC load, and it possibly helped microorganisms survive longer by providing a more manure-like environment in the soil. In the Boro rice season, manure application increased the TVC leaching up to 3–4 log-scale compared with the control treatment. The AWD irrigation increased TVC leaching compared with the continuous irrigation because the desiccation fractures developed in the AWD irrigation helped TVC bypass the organic-rich topsoil. The Boro rice fields had higher TVC leaching than the maize fields with higher manure doses. The study suggests that there is scope to improve manure management to protect the groundwater quality.     

A New Reversible and high capacity data hiding technique for E-healthcare applications

Multimedia Tools and Applications - A high capacity and reversible data hiding technique capable of tamper detection and localisation of medical images has been proposed in this paper. Image...     

Control charts for the shape parameter of reflected power function distribution under classical estimators

The reflected power function distribution (RPFD) has applications in the fields of reliability engineering and survival analysis. To identify and remove the variation in different reliability processes and also to monitor the reliability of machines where the number of errors follows RPFD, we develop control charts to keep the process in control. A memory less control chart like a Shewhart control chart, and two memory-based control charts like an exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control chart and a hybrid exponentially weighted moving average (HEWMA) control chart are discussed and compared with each other. Proposal of these control charts is based on two different estimators, the percentile estimator (PE) and the modified maximum likelihood estimator (MMLE). This study shows that an HEWMA control chart based on PE performs better than PE-based Shewhart and EWMA control charts, as well as MMLE-based Shewhart, EWMA, and HEWMA control charts.     

Multi-document summarization based on the Yago ontology

Sentence-based multi-document summarization is the task of generating a succinct summary of a document collection, which consists of the most salient document sentences. In recent years, the increasing availability of semantics-based models (e.g., ontologies and taxonomies) has prompted researchers to investigate their usefulness for improving summarizer performance. However, semantics-based document analysis is often applied as a preprocessing step, rather than integrating the discovered knowledge into the summarization process.This paper proposes a novel summarizer, namely Yago-based Summarizer, that relies on an ontology-based evaluation and selection of the document sentences. To capture the actual meaning and context of the document sentences and generate sound document summaries, an established entity recognition and disambiguation step based on the Yago ontology is integrated into the summarization process.The experimental results, which were achieved on the DUC’04 benchmark collections, demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach compared to a large number of competitors as well as the qualitative soundness of the generated summaries.     

Eco-friendly natural rubber–silver (NR–Ag) composites for photo-assisted degradation of methyl orange dye

An environmental friendly, low cost composite for the photo-assisted degradation of methyl orange (MO) is proposed. Here, natural rubber–silver (NR–Ag) composites are formed through soft thermal reduction. The characteristics of the NR–Ag composites were investigated using UV–vis spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. The deposition of Ag on the surface of natural rubber was proven by the XRD diffraction peaks, attributed to metallic Ag and the appearance of the surface plasmon resonance of Ag, at ~ 420–460 nm in the UV–vis spectrum. The degradation of MO dye by NR–Ag composite under UV light source showed positive results for the degradation of dye even with minute amounts of Ag content. The degradation mechanism of MO involved the generation of hydroxyl radicals from the UV-irradiated NR–Ag composite by the formation of superoxide species as the important radical intermediate. Several parameters such as the Ag salt concentration and pH of the MO dye were investigated. Complete degradation of MO was achieved when the composites containing 2 × 10^?3 wt% of Ag (NR–Ag₄) were employed at pH 3. Under this condition, complete degradation occurred within 30 min. Kinetic studies were conducted to understand the degradation phenomenon.     

Impact of Channel,Stress-Relaxed Buffer,and S/D Si<Subscript>1−<Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>Ge<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript> Stressor on the Performance of 7-nm FinFET CMOS Design with the Implementation of Stress Engineering

Stress-engineered fin-shaped field effect transistors (FinFET) using germanium (Ge) is a promising performance booster to replace silicon (Si) due to its high holes mobility. This paper presents a three-dimensional simulation by the Sentaurus technology computer-aided design to study the effects of stressors—channel stress, stress-relaxed buffer (SRB), and source/drain (S/D) epitaxial stress—on different bases of FinFET, specifically silicon germanium (SiGe) and Ge-based, whereby the latter is achieved by manipulating the Ge mole fraction inside the three layers; their effects on the devices’ figures-of-merits were recorded. The simulation generates an advanced calibration process, by which the drift diffusion simulation was adopted for ballistic transport effects. The results show that current enhancement in p-type FinFET (p-FinFET) with 110% is almost twice that in n-type FinFET (n-FinFET) with 57%, with increasing strain inside the channel suggesting that the use of strain is more effective for holes. In SiGe-based n-FinFET, the use of a high-strained SRB layer can improve the drive current up to 112%, while the high-strain S/D epitaxial for Ge-based p-FinFET can enhance the on-state current to 262%. Further investigations show that the channel and S/D doping are affecting the performances of SiGe-based FinFET with similar importance. It is observed that doping concentrations play an important role in threshold voltage adjustment as well as in drive current and subthreshold leakage improvements.