Characterization of Electronic and Ionic Transport in Soft and Hard Functional Materials

Control over concurrent transport of multiple carrier types is desired in both soft and hard materials. For both types of materials, I demonstrate ways to characterize and execute governance over both electronic and ionic transport, and apply these concepts in the fabrication of devices with applications in conducting composites, photovoltaics, electrochemical energy storage, and memristors. In soft materials, such as polymers, the topology of the binary polymer mesoscale morphology has major implications on the charge/ion transport. Traditional approaches to co-continuous structures involve either using blends of polymers or diblock copolymers. In polymer blends, the structures are kinetically trapped and thus have poor long term stability. In diblock polymers, such morphologies are not universally accessible to non-random coil polymers. I discuss an approach to binary polymer mesoscale morphologies via the assembly of polymer nanoparticles. In this strategy, polymers are assembled into spherical nanoparticles, which are then assembled into hierarchical mesoscale structures. First, I demonstrate, experimentally and computationally, that the electrical transport in semiconducting/insulating polymer nanoparticle assemblies can be predictably tuned according to power law percolation scaling. Then I show that nanoparticle assemblies can be utilized for tunable concurrent transport of electrons and holes for photovoltaics, and for electronic and ionic charges aimed at applications in electrochemical energy storage. For hard materials, I detail the characterization of mixed electronic and ionic transport in hybrid organic/inorganic lead triiodide perovskites. I used the understanding of mixed electronic and ionic transport in these materials to explain poorly understood phenomena such as photo-instability and current-voltage hysteresis. Then, I show several examples of interfacial materials, and the characterization and implications of their respective work functions, as charge transport materials to control selective charge extraction from perovskites. And finally, I show how interfacial charge transport materials with ionic functionality can be used to change the interfacial chemistry at perovskite/charge transport material interfaces to control both electronic and ionic transport. In this regard, I demonstrate how an adsorbing interface for mobile ions can be used to control current-voltage hysteresis and state-dependent resistance, introducing a novel paradigm of interfacial ion adsorption to fabricate novel perovskite-based memristor devices

The use of a nutrient quality score is effective to assess the overall nutritional value of three brassica microgreens

Microgreens have immense potential for improving dietary patterns, but little information is available regarding their overall nutritional value. We evaluated the nutritional traits of three hydroponically grown Brassica microgreens by using a Nutrient Quality Score. Micro cauliflower, micro broccoli and micro broccoli raab were grown using nutrient solutions with three different NH4:NO3 molar ratios (5:95, 15:85, and 25:75). Protein, dietary fiber, β-carotene, α-tocopherol and mineral elements (Ca, K, Mg, Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn, and Na) were analyzed. We developed the Nutrient Quality Score (NQS 11.1) on the basis of 11 desirable nutrients and 1 nutrient (sodium) to be limited. All Brassica microgreens are an excellent source of Vitamins A and E (more than 20% of the daily reference value-DRV), as well as a good source of calcium and manganese (10-19% of the DRV). Micro cauliflower showed a NQS 11.1 at 47% higher than micro broccoli raab and micro broccoli. Using NH4:NO3 25:75 molar ratio, the average score was 27% higher than other molar ratios. In all cases, the microgreens in the present study showed a higher NQS 11.1 than their mature counterpart (on the basis of data from the United States Department of Agriculture), highlighting that the score of micro cauliflower was about six-fold higher than mature cauliflower. In conclusion, the NQS 11.1 was useful for assessing the overall nutritional quality of the three Brassica microgreens, instead of simply quantifying nutrient content, in order to compare a single nutrient among different genotypes. Furthermore, the results highlight that the micro broccoli raab, micro broccoli and micro cauliflower in this study can be considered nutrient-rich vegetables that are able to improve dietary patterns more effectively than their mature counterparts

Analisa Pengaruh Information Sharing, Knowledge Sharing, Relationship Terhadap Performance Di Hotel X

Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengetahui adakah pengaruh dari information sharing dan knowledge sharing terhadap relationship, dan pengaruh information sharing, knowledge sharing dan relationship terhadap performance di hotel X. Komunikasi berperan penting dalam suatu Perusahaan, untuk membangun hubungan antar karyawan. Penelitian ini menggunakan teknik analisa data partial least square. Proses pengujian hipotesis melalui berbagai kriteria goodness-of-fit model. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa information sharing dan knowledge sharing berpengaruh positif terhadap relationship. Knowledge sharing dan relationship berpengaruh positif terhadap performance di hotel X. Information sharing tidak berpengaruh terhadap performance di hotel X

Extraseasonal production in a soilless system and characterisation of landraces of carosello and barattiere (Cucumis melo l.)

Barattiere and Carosello are typical melon (Cucumis melo L.) landraces of Puglia’s (South-ern Italy) biodiversity. Their unripe fruits are locally consumed as an alternative to cucumbers (C. sativus L.) and are appreciated for their qualitative profile. Nevertheless, they are underutilized crops. For the high variability and confusing denominations, a morphological characterization is essential to discriminate and valorise landraces; additionally, it is fundamental to implement the agronomic technique to allow the cultivation outside the natural growth period (summer) by soilless cultivation. Two genotypes of Barattiere (‘Allungato’ and ‘Tondo’), two of Carosello (‘Scopatizzo’ and ‘Tomentoso’ (CAT)) and two of cucumber (‘Baby Star’ and ‘Modan’ hybrids) were vertically grown in the winter–spring period in a rockwool soilless system in a glasshouse with supplemental light. Lan-draces were characterized by morpho-physiological descriptors of melon; fruit biometrics and colour were analysed for all genotypes; productive parameters, leaf fluorescence, and chlorophyll content were measured. Genotypes varied in seeds, stem, leaf, fruit traits and they were andromonoecious; Carosello flowered earlier and produced more than Barattiere; CAT fruits were hairy and elongate, while other genotypes tended to rounder and glabrous fruits. Although landraces grew slower than cucumbers, both produced marketable fruits and the production of Carosello was comparable to cucumbers. In conclusion, Barattiere and Carosello have a productive potential and one vertically trained stem in a soilless system is appropriate for their extra-seasonal production

Accurate, Very Low Computational Complexity Spike Sorting Using Unsupervised Matched Subspace Learning

This paper presents an adaptable dictionary-based feature extraction approach for spike sorting offering high accuracy and low computational complexity for implantable applications. It extracts and learns identifiable features from evolving subspaces through matched unsupervised subspace filtering. To provide compatibility with the strict constraints in implantable devices such as the chip area and power budget, the dictionary contains arrays of {-1, 0 and 1} and the algorithm need only process addition and subtraction operations. Three types of such dictionary were considered. To quantify and compare the performance of the resulting three feature extractors with existing systems, a neural signal simulator based on several different libraries was developed. For noise levels $\sigma_N$ between 0.05 and 0.3 and groups of 3 to 6 clusters, all three feature extractors provide robust high performance with average classification errors of less than 8% over five iterations, each consisting of 100 generated data segments. To our knowledge, the proposed adaptive feature extractors are the first able to classify reliably 6 clusters for implantable applications. An ASIC implementation of the best performing dictionary-based feature extractor was synthesized in a 65-nm CMOS process. It occupies an area of 0.09 mm2 and dissipates up to about 10.48 μW from a 1 V supply voltage, when operating with 8-bit resolution at 30 kHz operating frequency