Boulder Bands on Lobate Debris Aprons: Does Spatial Clustering Reveal Accumulation History for Martian Glaciations?

Glacial landforms such as lobate debris aprons (LDA) and Concentric Crater Fill (CCF) are the dominant debris-covered glacial landforms on Mars. These landforms represent a volumetrically significant component of the Amazonian water ice budget, however, because small craters (diameter D 0.5-1 km) are poorly retained glacial brain terrain surfaces, and, since the glacial landforms are geologically young, it is challenging to reliably constrain either individual glacial deposit ages or formational sequences in order to determine how quickly the glaciers accumulated. A fundamental question remaining is whether ice deposition and flow that formed LDA occurred episodically during a few, short instances, or whether glacial flow was quasi-continuous over a long period (~108 yr). Because glaciation is thought to be controlled largely by obliquity excursions, a larger question is whether glacial deposits on Mars exhibit regional to global characteristics that can be used to infer synchronicity of flow or degradation

Effect of various electron and hole transport layers on the performance of CsPbI3-based perovskite solar cells: A numerical investigation in DFT, SCAPS-1D, and wxAMPS frameworks

CsPbI3 has recently received tremendous attention as a possible absorber of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, CsPbI3-based PSCs have yet to achieve the high performance of the hybrid PSCs. In this work, we performed a density functional theory (DFT) study using the Cambridge Serial Total Energy Package (CASTEP) code for the cubic CsPbI3 absorber to compare and evaluate its structural, electronic, and optical properties. The calculated electronic band gap (Eg) using the GGA-PBE approach of CASTEP was 1.483 eV for this CsPbI3 absorber. Moreover, the computed density of states (DOS) exhibited the dominant contribution from the Pb-5d orbital, and most charge also accumulated for the Pb atom as seen from the electronic charge density map. Fermi surface calculation showed multiband character, and optical properties were computed to investigate the optical response of CsPbI3. Furthermore, we used IGZO, SnO2, WS2, CeO2, PCBM, TiO2, ZnO, and C60 as the electron transport layers (ETLs), and Cu2O, CuSCN, CuSbS2, Spiro-MeOTAD, V2O5, CBTS, CFTS, P3HT, PEDOT: PSS, NiO, CuO, and CuI as the hole transport layers (HTLs) to identify the best HTL/CsPbI3/ETL combinations using the SCAPS-1D solar cell simulation software. Among 96 device structures, the best-optimized device structure, ITO/TiO2/CsPbI3/CBTS/Au was identified, which exhibited an efficiency of 17.9%. The effect of absorber and ETL thickness, series resistance, shunt resistance, and operating temperature was also evaluated for the six best devices along with their corresponding generation rate, recombination rate, capacitance-voltage, current density-voltage, and quantum efficiency characteristics. The obtained results from SCAPS-1D were also compared with wxAMPS simulation software.Comment: 34 pages, 12 figures, Supporting Information (3 figures

Optimal sizing and assessment of a renewable rich standalone hybrid microgrid considering conventional dispatch methodologies

This paper presents an evaluation of the optimized design of an off-grid hybrid microgrid for alternative load dispatch algorithms with the determination of the most optimal sizing of each equipment, analyzing the voltage and frequency outputs and various costs of the proposed microgrids. Kushighat and Rajendro Bazar, two geographical locations in Bangladesh have been taken as test sites. The proposed microgrids incorporating diesel generator, renewable resources, storage device, and 23.31 kW of demand have been optimized for five conventional load dispatch methodologies: HOMER predictive dispatch, Load Following, Generator Order, Cycle Charging, and Combined Dispatch to reduce the system's net present cost, gas discharge and cost of energy. HOMER (Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Electric Renewables) software has been used for the analysis to determine the optimal sizes and costing and the voltage-frequency performances of the microgrids are analyzed using MATLAB/Simulink. From our analysis, load following is determined as the superior approach with a minimum operating cost of 3738 USD, net present cost of 152,023 USD, CO2 discharge of 3375 kg/year and cost of energy of 0.208 USD /kWh along with a steady voltage-frequency output. Combined dispatch is determined as the worst strategy for the proposed microgrids with the highest energy cost of 0.532 USD /kWh, the operational cost of 15,394 USD, net present cost of 415,030 USD, and high CO2 discharge. At the end of this work, a comparative analysis between the proposed design, another hybrid, and traditional generation plant is also presented. The findings of this work will be appropriate for any location with an identical demand profile and meteorological estate.Funding: This publication has been funded by the corresponding author Prof. ([email protected]: Qatar University).Scopu

Effective dispatch strategies assortment according to the effect of the operation for an islanded hybrid microgrid

The optimized design of a freestanding hybrid microgrid for various distinct dispatch controls is assessed in this paper, which considers the optimal sizes of individual components, system response, and reliability analysis. The effective design and management of stand-alone islanded hybrid smartgrids are getting increasingly importance and influences as the prevalence of renewable energy in microgrids grows. Melville Island, off the coast of eastern Queensland, Australia, is taken as the test microgrid in this study. For the optimal sizing and techno-economic assessment of the intended hybrid microgrid system consist of of solar diesel generator, PV, battery storage, and wind turbine, four dispatch approaches have been unitized: load following, generator order, combined dispatch, and cycle charging strategy. The proposed off-grid microgrid's CO2 emissions, total net present cost (NPC), and the Levelized cost of energy (LCOE) have all been optimized. In HOMER software, all the possible dispatch algorithms were analyzed, and the power system responses and reliability study were carried out using DIgSILENT PowerFactory. The findings of the study are useful for determining the optimum hybrid combination and available resources for the best performance of an off-grid microgrid employing various dispatch mechanisms. Following the simulation data, load-following is the best dispatch mechanism for stand-alone microgrid architecture since it has the lowest LCOE and NPC.This research work has been supported by Qatar National Library (QNL).Scopu

Cloud-Niagara: A high availability and low overhead fault tolerance middleware for the cloud

Fault tolerance is the ability to a system to continue its functionality despite the presence of faults in the architecture. For a dynamic system such as the cloud, fault tolerance is required to ensure business continuity. This paper proposes a high availability middleware that ensures fault tolerance for cloud based applications. Effective Descriptive Set Theory is used to determine the model of fault detection for real life applications running on the open source cloud. A deterministic algorithm of the middleware is provided that achieves automatic allocation of backup nodes to the system based on the faults. After detection of faults, the middleware directs the system to add new nodes as replicas of the failed nodes, ensuring continuity of the cloud applications. Next, a case study including seven real life applications such as PostGreSQL Database, etc are described and fault tolerance is ensured through the proposed middleware. Empirical performance analysis of the algorithm is carried out and results are compared to traditional systems. Results show that in the presence of faults induced during experimentation, the middleware can be effectively used to introduce replica and ensure fault tolerance of bottleneck resources for executing 700 to 1000 processes per unit time

Recent Advances and Implication of Bioengineered Nanomaterials in Cancer Theranostics

Cancer is one of the most common causes of death and affects millions of lives every year. In addition to non-infectious carcinogens, infectious agents contribute significantly to increased incidence of several cancers. Several therapeutic techniques have been used for the treatment of such cancers. Recently, nanotechnology has emerged to advance the diagnosis, imaging, and therapeutics of various cancer types. Nanomaterials have multiple advantages over other materials due to their small size and high surface area, which allow retention and controlled drug release to improve the anti-cancer property. Most cancer therapies have been known to damage healthy cells due to poor specificity, which can be avoided by using nanosized particles. Nanomaterials can be combined with various types of biomaterials to make it less toxic and improve its biocompatibility. Based on these properties, several nanomaterials have been developed which possess excellent anti-cancer efficacy potential and improved diagnosis. This review presents the latest update on novel nanomaterials used to improve the diagnostic and therapeutic of pathogen-associated and non-pathogenic cancers. We further highlighted mechanistic insights into their mode of action, improved features, and limitations