Smart Engagement and Smart Urbanism: Integrating "The Smart" Into Participatory Planning and Community Engagement

The smart city epitomizes a new paradigm shift in urban planning, policy, and cities. Smart cities require and are powered by smart city principles to succeed, including smart technologies, smart infrastructure, and smart governance; however, they also need to engage closely with the citizens who are most affected by the deployment of the smart city and who also embrace the diverse perspectives, experiences, and opportunities of living in smart cities, i.e., smart engagement. What would be forms of collaborative democracy and inclusive citizen participation in smart city planning? To what extent can smart city planning respond and address inequality, justice, and social and digital division? How can we create community-based climate change planning with the smart? What would be a smart community platform that supports smart engagement, and how do cities around the world establish smart city policy and assess the impact on smart engagement? This thematic issue aims to answer these questions by exploring new visions, facets and methods, practices, and tools for enabling smart engagement. Drawing on research from various countries and cities across the world, the contributions bring new prospects of smart engagement and smart urbanism and illuminate how the theory, plan and policy, and practices of smart engagements are binding to the extent of citizen participation and engagement in smart cities

A COMBINATORIAL APPROACH TO ROOT MULTIPLICITIES OF RANK 2 HYPERBOLIC KAC-MOODY ALGEBRAS

In this paper we study root multiplicities of rank 2 hyperbolic Kac-Moody algebras using the combinatorics of Dyck paths

Particulate counter electrode system for enhanced light harvesting in dye-sensitized solar cells

A particulate counter electrode with photo scattering and redox catalytic properties is applied to dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) in order to improve photo conversion efficiency and simplify the assembly process. Our particulate counter electrode acts as both a photo reflecting layer and a catalyst for reduction of electrolyte. The reflective and catalytic properties of the electrode are investigated through optical and electrochemical analysis, respectively. A short circuit current density enhancement is observed in the DSSCs without the need to add an additional reflecting layer to the electrode. This leads to a simplified assembly process. (C) 2013 Optical Society of Americ

Electrochemical Investigation of High-Performance Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Based on Molybdenum for Preparation of Counter Electrode

In order to improve the photocurrent conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), we studied an alternative conductor for the counter electrode and focused on molybdenum (Mo) instead of conventional fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO). Because Mo has a similar work function to FTO for band alignment, better formability of platinum (Pt), and a low electric resistance, using a counter electrode made of Mo instead of FTO lead to the enhancement of the catalytic reaction of the redox couple, reduce the interior resistance of the DSSCs, and prevent energy-barrier formation. Using electrical measurements under a 1-sun condition (100 mW/cm(2), AM 1.5), we determined that the fill factor (FF) and photocurrent conversion efficiency (eta) of DSSCs with a Mo electrode were respectively improved by 7.75% and 5.59% with respect to those of DSSCs with an FTO electrode. Moreover, we have investigated the origin of the improved performance through surface morphology analyses such as scanning electron microscopy and electrochemical analyses including cyclic voltammetry and impedance spectroscopy

Tailoring Low-field Strain Properties of [0.97Bi1/2(Na0.78K0.22)1/2TiO3-0.03LaFeO3]-Bi1/2(Na0.82K0.18)1/2TiO3 Lead-Free Relaxor/Ferroelectric Composites

We investigated the effect of Bi1/2(Na0.82K0.18)1/2TiO3 (BNKT) modification on the ferroelectric and electric-field-induced strain (EFIS) properties of lead-free 0.97Bi1/2(Na0.82K0.18)1/2TiO3-0.03LaFeO3 (BNKTLF) ceramics as a function of BNKT content (x= 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.5, and 1). BNKT-modified BNKTLF powders were synthesized using a conventional solid-state reaction method. As the BNKT content x increased from 0 to 1 the normalized electric-field-induced strain (Smax/Emax) was observed to increase at relatively low fields, i.e., below the poling field. Moreover, BNKTLF-30BNKT showed about 460 pm/V as low as at 3 kV/mm, which is a considerably high value among the lead-free systems reported so far. Consequently, it was confirmed that ceramic-ceramic composite, a mixture of an ergodic relaxor matrix and embedded ferroelectric seeds, is a salient way to make lead-free piezoelectrics practical with enhanced EFIS at low field as well as less hysterical.ope

Thin-plate forming by thixo- and rheoforging

Copyright © 2014 Chul Kyu Jin et al. Thin plates with a thickness of 1.2 mm are fabricated using two processes, thixoforging and rheoforging, which are semisolid forming techniques. The die design, formability, microstructure, and mechanical properties of the fabricated thin plates are analysed. A fan-shaped gate is designed by analysing the filling behaviour using semisolid material, and uniform filling behaviour of material is obtained by arranging nine overflows in product area. semisolid metal is prepared through a semisolid process in which reheating, a thixoprocess, and cooling with stirring, a rheoprocess, are applied. The semisolid material is injected into a forging die and is formed into thin plate at a punch speed of 300 mm/s and under a pressure of 100 MPa. Since semisolid material with a solid fraction below 45% has mainly small primary α-Al particles, the formability of the thin plate is improved. The formed thin plate also has good mechanical properties since the small and globular grains are evenly distributed. The thin plate formed from semisolid material with a solid fraction above 50% has poor mechanical properties owing to the large quantity of coarse primary α-Al particles. A rheoforged thin plate exhibits poorer mechanical properties than a thixoforged thin plate, but rheoforging produces amore precise thin plate