Attainable and Relevant Moral Exemplars Are More Effective than Extraordinary Exemplars in Promoting Voluntary Service Engagement

The present study aimed to develop effective moral educational interventions based on social psychology by using stories of moral exemplars. We tested whether motivation to engage in voluntary service as a form of moral behavior was better promoted by attainable and relevant exemplars or by unattainable and irrelevant exemplars. First, experiment 1, conducted in a lab, showed that stories of attainable exemplars more effectively promoted voluntary service activity engagement among undergraduate students compared with stories of unattainable exemplars and non-moral stories. Second, experiment 2, a middle school classroom-level experiment with a quasi-experimental design, demonstrated that peer exemplars, who are perceived to be attainable and relevant to students, better promoted service engagement compared with historic figures in moral education classes

Molecular Simulations of Charge Transport for Energy Storage and Conversion Applications

Molecular simulation plays a variety of roles in accelerating the development of energy materials, from providing a fundamental understanding of molecular processes to predicting their performance spanning a wide range of chemical space. In this thesis, we present molecular simulation studies of charge transport both in bulk energy materials and at their interfaces to provide molecular principles for advanced rechargeable batteries in part I and electricity generation using a metal nanofilm from water motion in part II. In part I, we discuss ion transport and interfacial electron transfer in polymeric battery materials, both of which are closely associated with battery operation. As a bulk electrolyte and a solid electrolyte interphase (SEI), polymeric materials often benefit rechargeable batteries, allowing for enhanced safety and increased energy density. Firstly, we propose a unique mechanism of lithium-ion transport in polymer-based electrolytes, including conjugated polymers with an imidazolium sidechain and polyborane-based single-ion conductors, which utilizes the formation of a percolating ion network to facilitate lithium ion transport. Secondly, we discuss interfacial ion solvation structure and dynamics that are closely related to interfacial electron-transfer kinetics. Simulations provide molecular insights into how a functional SEI passivates a metal electrode, thereby accelerating materials discovery such as an artificial SEI of self-assembled monolayers. In part II, we present molecular principles of energy conversion from a flow of ionic solution to electricity using metal nanolayers. The energy conversion emerges at a water-solid interface and requires a boundary of an electrical double layer at which ion adsorption and desorption occur along with the flow. We discuss charge induction mechanisms related to a heterolayered structure of a metal nanolayer and investigate factors that affect energy conversion efficiency in two different modes of operation, namely a flow cell and a wavetank.</p

AI Labor Markets: Toward a Dynamic Skills-Based Approach to Measurement

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the nature of work and reshaping labor markets. Viewing labor as a bundle of skills, recent research has analyzed AI skills and offered important insights about the impacts of AI on labor markets. We add to this on-going discourse and argue that taking a dynamic skill-based approach to measurement is critical: just like the development of AI is emergent and ever-evolving, so are AI skills. Taking stock of the literature, we show that existing studies tend to take a static approach to measuring AI skills, which fails to fully reflect the dynamic phenomenon of AI skills and could cause measurement errors. We propose a dynamic co-occurrence method and demonstrate that it performs better than the extant static methods, which can cause severe Type I and II errors, omit emerging AI skills, and temporally over- and under-estimate the demands for AI skills and jobs

Axial plane optical microscopy.

We present axial plane optical microscopy (APOM) that can, in contrast to conventional microscopy, directly image a sample's cross-section parallel to the optical axis of an objective lens without scanning. APOM combined with conventional microscopy simultaneously provides two orthogonal images of a 3D sample. More importantly, APOM uses only a single lens near the sample to achieve selective-plane illumination microscopy, as we demonstrated by three-dimensional (3D) imaging of fluorescent pollens and brain slices. This technique allows fast, high-contrast, and convenient 3D imaging of structures that are hundreds of microns beneath the surfaces of large biological tissues

Plasmon thermal conductivity of thin Au and Ag films

We investigated the thermal conductivity of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) propagating along thin Au and Ag films on a SiO$_2$ substrate with a Ti adhesive layer. To determine the propagation length and skin depth of SPPs along Au and Ag thin films, we numerically solved the dispersion relation while considering the size effect of the permittivity of metal. Additionally, we derived the spatial distribution of SPPs along the film thickness to analyze the effect of the Ti adhesive layer on the plasmon thermal conductivity of Au and Ag thin films. Our theoretical predictions revealed a decrease of approximately 30\% in plasmon thermal conductivity when considering the size effect of the permittivity of thin metal films. Furthermore, this causes the film thickness at which maximum thermal conductivity occurs to increase by about 30\%. Taking these factors into account, we calculated the optimal thickness of Au and Ag films, along with Ti adhesive layers, on SiO$_2$ substrates to be approximately 20 nm. By fabricating a sample with the optimal thickness of Au and Ag films, we experimentally demonstrated that the plasmon thermal conductivity of Au and Ag films can be as high as about 20\% of their electron contribution. This research will broaden the thermal design applications of ballistic thermal transport by SPPs propagating along thin metal coatings in microelectronics.Comment: 5 figure

A study of TiO2/carbon black composition as counter electrode materials for dye-sensitized solar cells

This study describes a systematic approach of TiO2/carbon black nanoparticles with respect to the loading amount in order to optimize the catalytic ability of triiodide reduction for dye-sensitized solar cells. In particular, the cell using an optimized TiO2and carbon black electrode presents an energy conversion efficiency of 7.4% with a 5:1 ratio of a 40-nm TiO2to carbon black. Based on the electrochemical analysis, the charge-transfer resistance of the carbon counter electrode changed based on the carbon black powder content. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry study show lower resistance compared to the Pt counter electrode. The obtained nanostructures and photo electrochemical study were characterized.open6

Interfacial Electron Transfer and Ion Solvation in the Solid Electrolyte Interphase

As a chemically and structurally well-defined model for redox processes in the solid electrolyte interphase of battery electrodes, we investigate electron transfer to lithium ions at the interface between a platinum metal anode and a solid polymer electrolyte. Studied electrolytes include LiTFSI (lithium bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonimide) salts in polyethylene oxide and poly(diethylene oxide-alt-oxymethylene), as well as in the as- sociated liquid electrolytes 1,2-dimethoxyethane and tetraglyme