Enhanced Performance of a ZnO Nanowire‐Based Self‐Powered Glucose Sensor by Piezotronic Effect

A self‐powered, piezotronic effect‐enhanced glucose sensor based on metal‐semiconductor‐metal (M–S–M) structured single ZnO nanowire device is demonstrated. A triboelectrical nanogenerator (TENG) is integrated to build a self‐powered glucose monitoring system (GMS) to realize the continuously monitoring of glucose concentrations. The performance of the glucose sensor is generally enhanced by the piezotronic effect when applying a –0.79% compressive strain on the device, and magnitude of the output signal is increased by more than 200%; the sensing resolution and sensitivity of sensors are improved by more than 200% and 300%, respectively. A theoretical model using energy band diagram is proposed to explain the observed results. This work demonstrates a promising approach to raise the sensitivity, improve the sensing resolution, and generally enhance the performance of glucose sensors, also providing a possible way to build up a self‐powered GMS.     

Remote‐Controlled Hydrogel Depots for Time‐Scheduled Vaccination

Remote‐controlled drug depots represent a highly valuable tool for the timely controlled administration of pharmaceuticals in a patient compliant manner. Here, the first pharmacologically controlled material that allows for the scheduled induction of a medical response in mice is described. To this aim, a novel, humanized biohybrid material that releases its cargo in response to a small‐molecule stimulus licensed for human use is developed. The functionality of the material in mice is demonstrated by the remote‐controlled delivery of a vaccine against the oncogenic human papillomavirus type 16. It is shown that the biohybrid depot‐mediated immunoprotection is equivalent to the classical multi‐injection‐based vaccination. These results indicate that this material can be used as a universal remote‐controlled vehicle for the patient‐compliant delivery of vaccines and pharmaceuticals.     

SER‐Based Relay Selection for Two‐Way Relaying with Physical Layer Network Coding

To enhance the symbol error rate (SER) performance of the two‐way relay channels with physical layer network coding, this letter proposes a relay selection scheme, in which the relay with the maximal minimum distance between different points in its constellation among all relays is selected to assist two‐way transmissions. We give the closed‐form expression of minimum distance for binary phase‐shift keying and quadrature phase‐shift keying. Additionally, we design a low‐complexity method for higher‐order modulations based on look‐up tables. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme improves the SER performance for two‐way relay networks.     

Industrial high‐rate (∼5 nm/s) deposited silicon nitride yielding high‐quality bulk and surface passivation under optimum anti‐reflection coating conditions

High‐quality surface and bulk passivation of crystalline silicon solar cells has been obtained under optimum anti‐reflection coating properties by silicon nitride (a‐SiN_x:H) deposited at very high deposition rates of ∼5 nm/s. These a‐SiN_x:H films were deposited using the expanding thermal plasma (ETP) technology under regular processing conditions in an inline industrial‐type reactor with a nominal throughput of 960 solar cells/hour. The low surface recombination velocities (50–70 cm/s) were obtained on p‐type silicon substrates (8·4 Ω cm resistivity) for as‐deposited and annealed films within the broad refractive index range of 1·9–2·4, which covers the optimum bulk passivation and anti‐reflection coating performance reached at a refractive index of ∼2·1. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

M‐RPSS: A modified RPSS for path scheduling of mobile sink in wireless sensor network

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), data gathering is the main concern, since it directly affects the network lifetime and data latency. Rendezvous Point Selection Scheme (RPSS) is a mobile sink node approach; it offers superior performance than its preceding mobile sink schemes like Rendezvous Design for Variable Track (RD‐VT), RD‐VT with Steiner Minimum Tree (RD‐VT‐SMT), and Weight Rendezvous Planning with Steiner Minimum Tree (WRP‐SMT). However, a more uniform distribution of the rendezvous node leads to less energy consumption in WSNs. The more optimum path offers less data latency. In the proposed approach, we use particle swarm optimization (PSO) to find the optimum rendezvous point and adaptive PSO (APSO) to find an optimum path by solving the travelling salesman problem. By rigorous simulation, we prove that modified RPSS (M‐RPSS) increases the network lifetime by more than 10% and decreases the data latency.     

ORuML: Optimized Routing in wireless networks using Machine Learning

Routing is a process of selecting a path in a network for delivering a packet from source node to destination node. Successful delivery of a message is a challenge, and therefore, this paper proposes an algorithm for a wireless network called Optimized Routing in wireless networks using Machine Learning (ORuML), which uses machine learning algorithm namely, K‐nearest neighbor (KNN), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Multinomial Logistic Regression (MLR), to predict the network type of the source and destination nodes. The ML model is trained by using characteristic features of a node collected in real time such as battery power utilization, available internal storage, IP address, and range of a node. Intuitively, the MLR should outperform KNN and SVM in terms of accuracy and Area under ROC Curve (AUC). The proposed algorithm determines whether the source and destination nodes are co‐located and also, determines the best neighboring hop for efficient routing.     

On proportional fairness of uplink spectral efficiency in cell‐free massive MIMO systems

This paper is concerned with the proportional fairness (PF) of the spectral efficiency (SE) maximization of uplinks in a cell‐free (CF) massive multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) system in which a large number of single‐antenna access points (APs) connected to a central processing unit (CPU) serve many single‐antenna users. To detect the user signals, the APs use matched filters based on the local channel state information while the CPU deploys receiver filters based on knowledge of channel statistics. We devise the maximization problem of the SE PF, which maximizes the sum of the logarithm of the achievable user rates, as a jointly nonconvex optimization problem of receiver filter coefficients and user power allocation subject to user power constraints. To handle the challenges associated with the nonconvexity of the formulated design problem, we develop an iterative algorithm by alternatively finding optimal filter coefficients at the CPU and transmit powers at the users. While the filter coefficient design is formulated as a generalized eigenvalue problem, the power allocation problem is addressed by a gradient projection (GP) approach. Simulation results show that the SE PF maximization not only offers approximately the achievable sum rates as compared to the sum‐rate maximization but also provides an improved trade‐off between the user rate fairness and the achievable sum rate.     

Electronic Structure and Optoelectronic Properties of Bismuth Oxyiodide Robust against Percent‐Level Iodine‐, Oxygen‐, and Bismuth‐Related Surface Defects

In the search for nontoxic alternatives to lead‐halide perovskites, bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI) has emerged as a promising contender. BiOI is air‐stable for over three months, demonstrates promising early‐stage photovoltaic performance and, importantly, is predicted from calculations to tolerate vacancy and antisite defects. Here, whether BiOI tolerates point defects is experimentally investigated. BiOI thin films are annealed at a low temperature of 100 °C under vacuum (25 Pa absolute pressure). There is a relative reduction in the surface atomic fraction of iodine by over 40%, reduction in the surface bismuth fraction by over 5%, and an increase in the surface oxygen fraction by over 45%. Unexpectedly, the Bi 4f_7/2 core level position, Fermi level position, and valence band density of states of BiOI are not significantly changed. Further, the charge‐carrier lifetime, photoluminescence intensity, and the performance of the vacuum‐annealed BiOI films in solar cells remain unchanged. The results show BiOI to be electronically and optoelectronically robust to percent‐level changes in surface composition. However, from photoinduced current transient spectroscopy measurements, it is found that the as‐grown BiOI films have deep traps located ≈0.3 and 0.6 eV from the band edge. These traps limit the charge‐carrier lifetimes of BiOI, and future improvements in the performance of BiOI photovoltaics will need to focus on identifying their origin. Nevertheless, these deep traps are three to four orders of magnitude less concentrated than the surface point defects induced through vacuum annealing. The charge‐carrier lifetimes of the BiOI films are also orders of magnitude longer than if these surface defects were recombination active. This work therefore shows BiOI to be robust against processing conditions that lead to percent‐level iodine‐, bismuth‐, and oxygen‐related surface defects. This will simplify and reduce the cost of fabricating BiOI‐based electronic devices, and stands in contrast to the defect‐sensitivity of traditional covalent semiconductors.     

Co‐Interlayer Engineering toward Efficient Green Quasi‐Two‐Dimensional Perovskite Light‐Emitting Diodes

With respect to three‐dimensional (3D) perovskites, quasi‐two‐dimensional (quasi‐2D) perovskites have unique advantages in light‐emitting devices (LEDs), such as strong exciton binding energy and good phase stability. Interlayer ligand engineering is a key issue to endow them with these properties. Rational design principles for interlayer materials and their processing techniques remain open to investigation. A co‐interlayer engineering strategy is developed to give efficient quasi‐2D perovskites by employing phenylbutylammonium bromide (PBABr) and propylammonium bromide (PABr) as the ligand materials. Preparation of these co‐interlayer quasi‐2D perovskite films is simple and highly controllable without using antisolvent treatment. Crystallization and morphology are readily manipulated by tuning the ratio of co‐interlayer components. Various optical techniques, including steady and ultrafast transient absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopies, are used to investigate their excitonic properties. Photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of the perovskite film is dramatically improved to 89% due to the combined optimization of exciton binding energy and suppression of trap state formation. Accordingly, a high current efficiency of 66.1 cd A^?1 and an external quantum efficiency of 15.1% are achieved for green co‐interlayer quasi‐2D perovskite LEDs without using any light out‐coupling techniques, indicating that co‐interlayer engineering is a simple and effective approach to develop high‐performance perovskite electroluminescence devices.