We Fish: An Interactive Information Design Mobile app for Local Fishing

Fishing is a popular hobby in today’s society. People enjoy fishing to relieve stress, create social bonds, and find it fulfilling and challenging. In order to fish effectively, a fisherman needs to know the real-time weather, location information, and have basic fishing knowledge. There are many ways we can help fishermen by providing this information in an easily accessible manner. For fishing beginners and fishing amateurs, the best way to help them catch fish is to create a tool that solves their needs. Mobile applications have quickly become a useful tool and are widely used today for its diversity and portability. It can aid promotion and offer great support, increase customer engagement, and provide more value to customers. There are mobile apps for almost every hobby and an app made specifically for its target users will always strive to provide important and relevant information. WeFish, a mobile app designed specifically for fishermen, will provide an excellent opportunity to help fishermen receive real-time notices, learn basic local information and extend their social network. The mission of this project is using UI and UX design to improve fishermen’s satisfaction. The final format of this project is an interactive information web prototype. Through analysis, this thesis project presents a prototype concept for an interactive information app that can engage suitable users, allow for feedback, postings, and reviews, and provide supportive information for the fishing enthusiast

Superlens-Assisted Laser Nanostructuring of Long Period Optical Fiber Gratings (LPGs) for Enhanced Refractive Index Sensing

We present an innovative method to enhance Long Period Optical Fiber Gratings (LPGs) for refractive index sensing using microsphere-assisted superlens laser nanostructuring. This technique involves self-assembling a silica microsphere monolayer on LPGs' outer surface, followed by pulsed laser irradiation to generate nanoholes (300-500 nm) forming nanohole-structured LPGs (NS-LPGs). In experiments, two nanohole densities were compared for their impact on sensing performance in sucrose and glycerin solutions. The nanostructured NS-LPGs showed improved sensitivity by 16.08% and 19.57% compared to regular LPGs, with higher nanohole density yielding greater enhancement. Importantly, the permanent nanohole structures ensure durability in harsh environments, surpassing conventional surface-coating-based LPGs. Further improvements can be achieved by refining nanostructuring density and controlling nanohole size and depth. Our work represents a notable advancement in LPG sensor engineering, prioritizing surface nanostructuring over nano-coating, promising enhanced refractive index sensing applications.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Joint Block-Sparse Recovery Using Simultaneous BOMP/BOLS

We consider the greedy algorithms for the joint recovery of high-dimensional sparse signals based on the block multiple measurement vector (BMMV) model in compressed sensing (CS). To this end, we first put forth two versions of simultaneous block orthogonal least squares (S-BOLS) as the baseline for the OLS framework. Their cornerstone is to sequentially check and select the support block to minimize the residual power. Then, parallel performance analysis for the existing simultaneous block orthogonal matching pursuit (S-BOMP) and the two proposed S-BOLS algorithms is developed. It indicates that under the conditions based on the mutual incoherence property (MIP) and the decaying magnitude structure of the nonzero blocks of the signal, the algorithms select all the significant blocks before possibly choosing incorrect ones. In addition, we further consider the problem of sufficient data volume for reliable recovery, and provide its MIP-based bounds in closed-form. These results together highlight the key role of the block characteristic in addressing the weak-sparse issue, i.e., the scenario where the overall sparsity is too large. The derived theoretical results are also universally valid for conventional block-greedy algorithms and non-block algorithms by setting the number of measurement vectors and the block length to 1, respectively.Comment: This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publicatio

Examination of the Role of Peer Effect on Board Diversity Among US-Listed Companies

Traditionally, government mandates and investor activism influence board diversity in the United States. This study proposes peer effects as a third important determinant of board diversity. The results suggest that companies consider the progress made by their peers when deciding their own diversity. Interestingly, companies only match the performance of their peers and will spend comparable efforts in improving their diversity according to their peer\u27s progress. Meanwhile, the peer effect has grown stronger in recent years, and companies are more likely to track the performance of mid-level peers. The results provide evidence on a new channel that can affect board diversity and additional evidence on how peer performance affects firms\u27 decisions

Origins of Large Voltage Hysteresis in High Energy-Density Metal Fluoride Lithium-Ion Battery Conversion Electrodes

Metal fluoride and oxides can store multiple lithium-ions through conversion chemistry to enable high energy-density lithium-ion batteries. However, their practical applications have been hindered by an unusually large voltage hysteresis between charge and discharge voltage-profiles and the consequent low energy efficiency (< 80%). The physical origins of such hysteresis are rarely studied and poorly understood. Here we employ in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), density-functional-theory (DFT) calculations, and galvanostatic intermittent titration technique (GITT) to first correlate the voltage profile of iron fluoride ($FeF_3$), a representative conversion electrode material, with evolution and spatial distribution of intermediate phases in the electrode. The results reveal that, contrary to conventional belief, the phase evolution in the electrode is symmetrical during discharge and charge. However, the spatial evolution of the electrochemically active phases, which is controlled by reaction kinetics, is different. We further propose that the voltage hysteresis in the $FeF_3$ electrode is kinetic in nature. It is the result of Ohmic voltage drop, reaction overpotential, and different spatial distributions of electrochemically-active phases (i.e. compositional inhomogeneity). Therefore, the large hysteresis can be expected to be mitigated by rational design and optimization of material microstructure and electrode architecture to improve the energy efficiency of lithium-ion batteries based on conversion chemistry

2017 Shenzhen International Conference on Libraries and Digital Humanities

The University Town Library of Shenzhen hosted the three-day International Conference on Libraries and Digital Humanities from December 6th to 8th, 2017