Effects of Surface Roughness on the Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 over Cu

We have investigated the role of surface roughening on the CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) over Cu. The activity and product selectivity of Cu surfaces roughened by plasma pretreatment in Ar, O2, or N2 were compared with that of electrochemically polished Cu samples. Differences in total and product current densities, the ratio of current densities for HER (the hydrogen evolution reaction) to CO2RR, and the ratio of current densities for C2+ to C1 products depend on the electrochemically active surface and are nearly independent of plasma composition. Theoretical analysis of an electropolished and roughened Cu surface reveals a higher fraction of undercoordinated Cu sites on the roughened surface, sites that bind CO preferentially. Roughened surfaces also contain square sites similar to those on a Cu(100) surface but with neighboring step sites, which adsorb OC-COH, a precursor to C2+ products. These findings explain the increases in the formation of oxygenates and hydrocarbons relative to CO and the ratio of oxygenates to hydrocarbons observed with increasing surface roughness

Cyclostationary analysis of analog least mean square loop for self-interference cancellation in in-band full-duplex systems

© 2017 IEEE. Analog least mean square (ALMS) loop is a promising mechanism to suppress self-interference (SI) in an in-band full-duplex (IBFD) system. In this letter, a general solution for the weighting error function is derived to investigate the performance of the ALMS loop employed in any IBFD system. The solution is then applied to IBFD systems with single carrier and multicarrier signaling. Due to the cyclostationary property of the transmitted signal, the weighting error function in the multicarrier system varies more significantly than in the single carrier. Therefore, if the ALMS loop can perfectly mimic the SI channel, SI in the single carrier system can be suppressed to a much smaller level than that in the multi-carrier counterpart

Topology design for time-varying networks

Traditional wireless networks seek to support end-to-end communication through either a single-hop wireless link to infrastructure or multi-hop wireless path to some destination. However, in some wireless networks (such as delay tolerant networks, or mobile social networks), due to sparse node distribution, node mobility, and time-varying network topology, end-to-end paths between the source and destination are not always available. In such networks, the lack of continuous connectivity, network partitioning, and long delays make design of network protocols very challenging. Previous DTN or time-varying network research mainly focuses on routing and information propagation. However, with large number of wireless devices' participation, and a lot of network functionality depends on the topology, how to maintain efficient and dynamic topology of a time-varying network becomes crucial. In this dissertation, I model a time-evolving network as a directed time-space graph which includes both spacial and temporal information of the network, then I study various topology control problems with such time-space graphs. First, I study the basic topology design problem where the links of the network are reliable. It aims to build a sparse structure from the original time-space graph such that (1) the network is still connected over time and/or supports efficient routing between any two nodes; (2) the total cost of the structure is minimized. I first prove that this problem is NP-hard, and then propose several greedy-based methods as solutions. Second, I further study a cost-efficient topology design problem, which not only requires the above two objective, but also guarantees that the spanning ratio of the topology is bounded by a given threshold. This problem is also NP-hard, and I give several greedy algorithms to solve it. Last, I consider a new topology design problem by relaxing the assumption of reliable links. Notice that in wireless networks the topologies are not quit predictable and the links are often unreliable. In this new model, each link has a probability to reflect its reliability. The new reliable topology design problem aims to build a sparse structure from the original space-time graph such that (1) for any pair of devices, there is a space-time path connecting them with the reliability larger than a required threshold; (2) the total cost of the structure is minimized. Several heuristics are proposed, which can significantly reduce the total cost of the topology while maintain the connectivity or reliability over time. Extensive simulations on both random networks and real-life tracing data have been conducted, and results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed methods

Quantitative Measurements of Carcinogen-DNA Adduct Using MALDI Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

Many carcinogens and their electrophilic metabolites react readily with DNA, and form different types of DNA adducts. Clinically, DNA adducts have been linked to cancer diseases. Also, different DNA adducts have been used as biomarkers to monitor the exposure of individuals to specific carcinogens. In this study, we have explored the use of high throughput matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) technique to quantitate carcinogen-DNA adducts. A pure synthetic aromatic amine-DNA adduct, namely N-(2’-deoxyguanosin-8yl)-4-aminobiphenyl (dG-ABP) that has been clinically associated with bladder cancer, was selected as a representing carcinogen-DNA adduct in this study. Among the four natural nucleobases, guanine is the most frequent site for DNA adduction. Another reason for choosing a dG adduct is due to the N-glycosidic bond between guanine and ribose is the weakest when comparing to the other deoxyribonucleotides. This intrinsic property of dG adducts has led to the dissociation of their corresponding aglycon ions when mass spectroscopic techniques were used to perform their qualitative measurements, including MALDI-TOF MS. In our initial study, a novel approach of using G-ABP aglycon ion instead of the dG-ABP ion to perform the quantitation of dG-ABP has been examined. In an alternative approach to perform the dG-ABP quantitation, the effects of different MALDI matrices, sample preparation methods, and various instrumental parameters were studied. Using the optimal conditions and dG-ABP ion, a calibration graph for the quantitation of dG-ABP was constructed with using 2’-deoxyguanisine monohydrate as internal standard. The linearity of the calibration graph had a R-squared value of 0.9897. The limit of quantitation for dG-ABP was at 2.23µM with a signal-to-noise ratio of 32.2, and the linear dynamic range for quantitation was extended to 1,000µM. The results of this study have demonstrated for the first time MALDI-TOF MS is a viable technique for carrying out quantitative measurements of carcinogen-DNA adducts

PYDAC: A DISTRIBUTED RUNTIME SYSTEM AND PROGRAMMING MODEL FOR A HETEROGENEOUS MANY-CORE ARCHITECTURE

Heterogeneous many-core architectures that consist of big, fast cores and small, energy-efficient cores are very promising for future high-performance computing (HPC) systems. These architectures offer a good balance between single-threaded perfor- mance and multithreaded throughput. Such systems impose challenges on the design of programming model and runtime system. Specifically, these challenges include (a) how to fully utilize the chip’s performance, (b) how to manage heterogeneous, un- reliable hardware resources, and (c) how to generate and manage a large amount of parallel tasks. This dissertation proposes and evaluates a Python-based programming framework called PyDac. PyDac supports a two-level programming model. At the high level, a programmer creates a very large number of tasks, using the divide-and-conquer strategy. At the low level, tasks are written in imperative programming style. The runtime system seamlessly manages the parallel tasks, system resilience, and inter- task communication with architecture support. PyDac has been implemented on both an field-programmable gate array (FPGA) emulation of an unconventional het- erogeneous architecture and a conventional multicore microprocessor. To evaluate the performance, resilience, and programmability of the proposed system, several micro-benchmarks were developed. We found that (a) the PyDac abstracts away task communication and achieves programmability, (b) the micro-benchmarks are scalable on the hardware prototype, but (predictably) serial operation limits some micro-benchmarks, and (c) the degree of protection versus speed could be varied in redundant threading that is transparent to programmers

Programmatic and performance observations for Two Chamber Works by Chen Yi

As a Chinese-American composer who was born and reared in China, then studied and settled in the United States, Chen Yi’s success is widely recognized around the world. However, this success is not coincidental and is closely related to her fusion of the Chinese and Western cultures in her works. At the time of this writing, Chen Yi has composed more than forty chamber works, from which the author researched two with the same instrumentation—flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano. By understanding Chen Yi’s life experiences and analyzing the theoretical aspects of these compositions, the author gives suggestions for ensemble, timbre, rhythm, pedaling, and performance techniques in these two chamber works by Chen Yi—Happy Rain on a Spring Night and … as like a raging fire

Analog Least Mean Square Loop for Self-Interference Cancellation: Implementation and Measurements

Analog least mean square (ALMS) loop is a simple and efficient adaptive filter to cancel self-interference (SI) in in-band full-duplex (IBFD) radios. This paper proposes a practical structure and presents an implementation of the ALMS loop. By employing off-the-shelf components, a prototype of the ALMS loop including two taps is implemented. The prototype is evaluated in IBFD systems which have 20 MHz and 50 MHz bandwidths, respectively, with the carrier frequency of 2.4 GHz. The performance of the prototype with different roll-off factors of the transmit pulse shaping filter is also examined. Experimental results show that the ALMS loop can provide 39 dB and 33 dB of SI cancellation for the two systems, respectively. Furthermore, when the roll-off factor of the pulse shaping filter changes, different levels of cancellation given by the prototype are also demonstrated accordingly. These experimental results validate the theoretical analyses presented in our previous publications on the ALMS loop behaviors

Analog least mean square loop for self-interference cancellation: A practical perspective

©2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Self-interference (SI) is the key issue that prevents in-band full-duplex (IBFD) communications from being practical. Analog multi-tap adaptive filter is an efficient structure to cancel SI since it can capture the nonlinear components and noise in the transmitted signal. Analog least mean square (ALMS) loop is a simple adaptive filter that can be implemented by purely analog means to sufficiently mitigate SI. Comprehensive analyses on the behaviors of the ALMS loop have been published in the literature. This paper proposes a practical structure and presents an implementation of the ALMS loop. By employing off-the-shelf components, a prototype of the ALMS loop including two taps is implemented for an IBFD system operating at the carrier frequency of 2.4 GHz. The prototype is firstly evaluated in a single carrier signaling IBFD system with 20 MHz and 50 MHz bandwidths, respectively. Measured results show that the ALMS loop can provide 39 dB and 33 dB of SI cancellation in the radio frequency domain for the two bandwidths, respectively. Furthermore, the impact of the roll-off factor of the pulse shaping filter on the SI cancellation level provided by the prototype is presented. Finally, the experiment with multicarrier signaling shows that the performance of the ALMS loop is the same as that in the single carrier system. These experimental results validate the theoretical analyses presented in our previous publications on the ALMS loop behaviors

Analog Least Mean Square Loop with I/Q Imbalance for Self-Interference Cancellation in Full-Duplex Radios

© 1967-2012 IEEE. Analog least mean square (ALMS) loop is a promising structure for self-interference (SI) mitigation in full-duplex radios due to its simplicity and adaptive capability. However, being constructed from in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) demodulators and modulators to process complex signals, the ALMS loop may face I/Q imbalance problems. Thus, in this paper, the effects of frequency-independent I/Q imbalance in the ALMS loop are investigated. It is revealed that I/Q imbalance affects the loop gain and the level of SI cancellation. The loop gain can be easily compensated by adjusting the gain at other stages of the ALMS loop. Meanwhile, the degradation on cancellation performance is proved to be insignificant even under severe conditions of I/Q imbalance. In addition, an upper bound of the degradation factor is derived to provide an essential reference for the system design. Simulations are conducted to confirm the theoretical analyses

Frequency-domain characterization and performance bounds of ALMS loop for RF self-interference cancellation

© 1972-2012 IEEE. Analog least mean square (ALMS) loop is a promising method to cancel self-interference (SI) in in-band full-duplex (IBFD) systems. In this paper, the steady state analyses of the residual SI powers in both analog and digital domains are firstly derived. The eigenvalue decomposition is then utilized to investigate the frequency domain characteristics of the ALMS loop. Our frequency domain analyses prove that the ALMS loop has an effect of amplifying the frequency components of the residual SI at the edges of the signal spectrum in the analog domain. However, the matched filter in the receiver chain will reduce this effect, resulting in a significant improvement of the interference suppression ratio (ISR). It means that the SI will be significantly suppressed in the digital domain before information data detection. This paper also derives the lower bounds of ISRs given by the ALMS loop in both analog and digital domains. These lower bounds are joint effects of the loop gain, tap delay, number of taps, and transmitted signal properties. The discovered relationship among these parameters allows the flexibility in choosing appropriate parameters when designing the IBFD systems under given constraints