Strong Bathochromic Shift of Conjugated Polymer Nanowires Assembled with a Liquid Crystalline Alkyl Benzoic Acid via a Film Dispersion Process

We present aqueous dispersions of conjugated polymer nanowires (CPNWs) with improved light absorption properties aimed at aqueous-based applications. We assembled films of a donor???acceptor-type conjugated polymer and liquid crystalline 4-n-octylbenzoic acid by removing a cosolvent of their mixture solutions, followed by annealing of the films, and then formed aqueous-dispersed CPNWs with an aspect ratio >1000 by dispersing the films under ultrasonication at a basic pH. X-ray and spectroscopy studies showed that the polymer and liquid crystal molecules form independent domains in film assemblies and highly organized layer structures in CPNWs. Our ordered molecular assemblies in films and aqueous dispersions of CPNWs open up a new route to fabricate nanowires of low-band-gap linear conjugated polymers with the absorption maximum at 794 nm remarkably red-shifted from 666 nm of CPNWs prepared by an emulsion process. Our results suggest the presence of semicrystalline polymorphs ??1 and ??2 phases in CPNWs due to long-range ??????? stacking of conjugated backbones in compactly organized lamellar structures. The resulting delocalization with a reduced energy bang gap should be beneficial for enhancing charge transfer and energy-conversion efficiencies in aqueous-based applications such as photocatalysis

Does CSR Assurance Affect the Relationship between CSR Performance and Financial Performance?

In this study, we investigate the effect of assurance service of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports on the relationship between CSR performance and firms’ financial performance. Specifically, we question whether firms having their CSR performance assured to benefit from such assurance services. Theory suggests that investors apply a lower discount rate when valuing firms if information from the firms is credible. Using a sample of 5040 large U.S. companies, we find that the CSR performance is positively associated with the firms’ financial performance on average and that there is a significant effect of CSR assurance service on the relationship between CSR performance and firms’ financial performance. This implies that firms having their CSR reports assured by external experts experience much higher financial performance than firms without such assurance service. Our findings are consistent with the prior studies and support our argument with regard to the CSR assurance service. The findings have implications for firms considering CSR assurance and accounting professionals for their opportunities

Formation Control Algorithm of Multi-UAV-Based Network Infrastructure

This paper addresses the analysis and the deployment of the network infrastructure based on multiple Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs). Despite the unprecedented potential to the mobility of the network infrastructure, there has been no effort to establish a mathematical model of the infrastructure and formation control strategies. We model the generic dynamics of the network infrastructure and derive the network throughput of the infrastructure. Through the parametrization of the model, we extract the generic factors of the network protocols and verify our model through the Network Simulator 3 (ns-3). By exploiting our network analysis model, we propose a novel formation control algorithm that determines the location of the UAVs to maximize the efficiency of the network. To achieve the objectives of the infrastructure, we define the formation-shaping effect as forces and elaborately design them using the generic factors. The formation algorithm continuously approaches to the optimized formation of a fleet of UAVs to enhance the overall throughput of the terrestrial devices. Our evaluations show that the algorithm guarantees remarkably higher throughput than the static formations. Through the dynamic transformation of the UAV formation, we believe that the multi-UAV-based network infrastructure could expand the boundary of the existing infrastructure while reducing the network traffic

Alignment of biological sequences with quality scores.

In this paper we consider the problem of sequence alignment with quality scores. DNA sequences produced by a base-calling program (as part of sequencing) have quality scores which represent the confidence level for individual bases. However, previous sequence alignment algorithms do not consider such quality scores. To solve sequence alignment with quality scores, we first consider a more general problem where the input is weighted sequences which are sequences with probabilities that characters occur in each position. We propose a meaningful measure of an alignment of two weighted sequences and show that an optimal alignment in this measure can be found by dynamic programming. Sequence alignment with quality scores can be solved as a special case of the weighted sequence alignment problem

External memory algorithms for string problems

In this paper we present external memory algorithms for some string problems. External memory algorithms have been developed in many research areas, as the speed gap between fast internal memory and slow external memory continues to grow. The goal of external memory algorithms is to minimize the number of input/output operations between internal memory and external memory. These years the sizes of strings such as DNA sequences are rapidly increasing. However, external memory algorithms have been developed for only a few string problems. In this paper we consider five string problems and present external memory algorithms for them. They are the problems of finding the maximum suffix, string matching, period finding, Lyndon decomposition, and finding the minimum of a circular string. Every algorithm that we present here runs in a linear number of I/Os in the external memory model with one disk, and they run in an optimal number of disk I/Os in the external memory model with multiple disks

CoSimulating Communication Networks and Electrical System for Performance Evaluation in Smart Grid

In smart grid research domain, simulation study is the first choice, since the analytic complexity is too high and constructing a testbed is very expensive. However, since communication infrastructure and the power grid are tightly coupled with each other in the smart grid, a well-defined combination of simulation tools for the systems is required for the simulation study. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a cosimulation work called OOCoSim, which consists of OPNET (network simulation tool) and OpenDSS (power system simulation tool). By employing the simulation tool, an organic and dynamic cosimulation can be realized since both simulators operate on the same computing platform and provide external interfaces through which the simulation can be managed dynamically. In this paper, we provide OOCoSim design principles including a synchronization scheme and detailed descriptions of its implementation. To present the effectiveness of OOCoSim, we define a smart grid application model and conduct a simulation study to see the impact of the defined application and the underlying network system on the distribution system. The simulation results show that the proposed OOCoSim can successfully simulate the integrated scenario of the power and network systems and produce the accurate effects of the networked control in the smart grid