Mapping the field of psychology: Trends in research topics 1995–2015

Scientometrics - We map the topic structure of psychology utilizing a sample of over 500,000 abstracts of research articles and conference proceedings spanning two decades (1995–2015). To do...     

Insights into Electrolytic Pre-Lithiation: A Thorough Analysis Using Silicon Thin Film Anodes

Pre-lithiation via electrolysis, herein defined as electrolytic pre-lithiation, using cost-efficient electrolytes based on lithium chloride (LiCl), is successfully demonstrated as a proof-of-concept for enabling lithium-ion battery full-cells with high silicon content negative electrodes. An electrolyte for pre-lithiation based on γ-butyrolactone and LiCl is optimized using boron-containing additives (lithium bis(oxalato)borate, lithium difluoro(oxalate)borate) and CO₂ with respect to the formation of a protective solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) on silicon thin films as model electrodes. Reversible lithiation in Si||Li metal cells is demonstrated with Coulombic efficiencies (C_Eff) of 95–96% for optimized electrolytes comparable to 1 m LiPF₆/EC:EMC 3:7. Formation of an effective SEI is shown by cyclic voltammetry and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). electrolytic pre-lithiation experiments show that notable amounts of the gaseous product Cl₂ dissolve in the electrolyte leading to a self-discharge Cl₂/Cl⁻ shuttle mechanism between the electrodes lowering pre-lithiation efficiency and causing current collector corrosion. However, no significant degradation of the Si active material and the SEI due to contact with elemental chlorine is found by SEM, impedance, and XPS. In NCM111||Si full-cells, the capacity retention in the 100th cycle can be significantly increased from 54% to 78% by electrolytic pre-lithiation, compared to reference cells without pre-lithiation of Si.     

Correlating Nanocrystalline Structure with Electronic Properties in 2D Platinum Diselenide

Platinum diselenide (PtSe₂) is a 2D material with outstanding electronic and piezoresistive properties. The material can be grown at low temperatures in a scalable manner, which makes it extremely appealing for many potential electronics, photonics, and sensing applications. Here, the nanocrystalline structure of different PtSe₂ thin films grown by thermally assisted conversion (TAC) is investigated and is correlated with their electronic and piezoresistive properties. Scanning transmission electron microscopy for structural analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) for chemical analysis, and Raman spectroscopy for phase identification are used. Electronic devices are fabricated using transferred PtSe₂ films for electrical characterization and piezoresistive gauge factor measurements. The variations of crystallite size and their orientations are found to have a strong correlation with the electronic and piezoresistive properties of the films, especially the sheet resistivity and the effective charge carrier mobility. The findings may pave the way for tuning and optimizing the properties of TAC-grown PtSe₂ toward numerous applications.     

Robust Single Molecule Magnet Monolayers on Graphene and Graphite with Magnetic Hysteresis up to 28 K

The chemical functionalization of fullerene single molecule magnet Tb₂@C₈₀(CH₂Ph) enables the facile preparation of robust monolayers on graphene and highly oriented pyrolytic graphite from solution without impairing their magnetic properties. Monolayers of endohedral fullerene functionalized with pyrene exhibit magnetic bistability up to a temperature of 28 K. The use of pyrene terminated linker molecules opens the way to devise integration of spin carrying units encapsulated by fullerene cages on graphitic substrates, be it single-molecule magnets or qubit candidates.     

Automated reference-free detection of motion artifacts in magnetic resonance images

Objectives

Our objectives were to provide an automated method for spatially resolved detection and quantification of motion artifacts in MR images of the head and abdomen as well as a quality control of the trained architecture.

Materials and methods

T1-weighted MR images of the head and the upper abdomen were acquired in 16 healthy volunteers under rest and under motion. Images were divided into overlapping patches of different sizes achieving spatial separation. Using these patches as input data, a convolutional neural network (CNN) was trained to derive probability maps for the presence of motion artifacts. A deep visualization offers a human-interpretable quality control of the trained CNN. Results were visually assessed on probability maps and as classification accuracy on a per-patch, per-slice and per-volunteer basis.

Results

On visual assessment, a clear difference of probability maps was observed between data sets with and without motion. The overall accuracy of motion detection on a per-patch/per-volunteer basis reached 97%/100% in the head and 75%/100% in the abdomen, respectively.

Conclusion

Automated detection of motion artifacts in MRI is feasible with good accuracy in the head and abdomen. The proposed method provides quantification and localization of artifacts as well as a visualization of the learned content. It may be extended to other anatomic areas and used for quality assurance of MR images.

     

Simulation of cigarette smoke dynamics in denuder tubes considering particle phase chemistry

The aerosol dynamics model ADiC was extended to include chemical reactions. It is used to computationally replicate denuder tube experiments where freshly generated cigarette smoke is drawn through a vertically arranged, acid covered tube to capture alkaline substances. The calculated deposition rates and total deposition are compared to experimental findings from several studies that investigated respective quantities for nicotine (and ammonia). Further, the form of deposition, vaporous and condensed phase, is considered. The model does not apply any parameters changing physico-chemical properties to fit simulation and experimental findings.

The only variable parameter used in all simulations is the choice of the amount of acid initially in the system to establish a certain pH value. An initial pH of 5.9 to 6.25 (i.e. the baseline scenarios) allows for replicating the nicotine deposition rate and total deposition in the lower tube sections. For the same simulation, ammonia deposition rate and total deposition are of the order of the experimental data. For the simulation featuring the initially lower pH value, the deposition of ammonia is lower than the experimental data – in the other case it is higher. Increasing the molality of alkaline substances initially in the system by roughly 20% drastically reduces the differences between simulated and measured nicotine deposition rate.

The present model describes some aspects of the dynamics of the complex cigarette smoke in a simplified manner; however, since it is independent of experiment specific parameters it may be applied to other environments such as deposition in the respiratory tract.     

Raman spectroscopy and TEM characterization of solid particulate matter emitted from soot generators and aircraft turbine engines

To obtain reliable mass concentrations of solid particulate matter (PM) in the exhaust emissions from engines using optical instruments, it is essential that the solid PM used for instrument calibration has similar optical properties to the solid PM emitted from the engines being tested. The solid PM emitted from combustion engines is predominantly soot. The optical properties of soot are dictated by its chemical structure, size, and morphology. In this work, the chemical bond structure, primary-particle diameters, aggregate sizes, and morphological parameters of the soot emitted from two laboratory soot generators, widely used for calibrating instruments, are compared to those of soot emitted from three aircraft turbine engines using Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The Raman spectral properties, size, and morphology of soot emitted from aircraft engines are distinctly different from the properties of soot emitted from the soot generators operating under globally near-stoichiometric and fuel-rich conditions. These differences can be attributed to the variations in the size and orientation of the graphitic crystallites, amorphous-carbon content, amount of polyacetylene compounds, deposition of organic material, and extent of oxidation. Conversely, general agreement is observed between the chemical structure, size, and morphology of soot emitted from aircraft engines and the soot emitted from the soot generators operating at globally fuel-lean conditions. The findings of this investigation can be useful for identifying suitable soot particles for the calibration of instruments to measure the mass concentration of solid PM emissions from engines, and for other types of soot.

Copyright © 2017 Crown Copyright     

Prediction of Speech Quality Based on Resilient Backpropagation Artificial Neural Network

The paper presents a system for monitoring and assessment the speech quality in the IP telephony infrastructures using modular probes. The probes are placed at key nodes in the network where aggregating packet loss data. The system dynamically measures speech quality and results are collected on a central server. For data analysis we applied four-state Markov model for modeling the impact of network impairments on speech quality, afterwards, the resilient back propagation (Rprop) algorithm was used to train a neural network. Information about the speech quality are displayed in the form of automatically generated graphs and tables. The proposed solution has been tested with selected codecs and further generalizes the already presented concepts of the speech quality estimation in the IP environment.

     

Distance dependent spectral tuning of two coupled metal nanoparticles

The spectral properties of two spherical metallic nanoparticles of 80 nm in diameter are examined with regard to the interparticle distance and relative polarization of the excitation light. One Au nanoparticle is attached to a scanning fiber probe and the second to a scanning substrate. This configuration allows three-dimensional and arbitrary manipulation of both distance and relative orientation with respect to the incident light polarization. As supported by numerical simulations, a periodic modulation of the coupled plasmon resonance is observed for separations smaller than 1.5 microm. This interparticle coupling affects the scattering cross section in terms of spectral position and spectral width as well as the integral intensity of the Mie-scattered light.