Application of Interactive Autonomous Learning Mode to Teach College English Writing

Writing is usually considered as an individual activity, emphasizing the result instead of the process in which students undergo to reach the final goal. However, writing process is of great importance to the students. In the writing process, they can develop writing competence and learner autonomy through interaction. Thus, this thesis intends to demonstrate the effectiveness of applying Interactive Autonomous Learning Mode to writing instruction in college classroom setting

CMAG: IoT Baby Monitor

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, also known as SIDS, is the leading cause of mortality in infants from one month to one year of age. We propose a video-based baby monitoring system with Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities to help shorten the response time of SIDS cases. Using a video amplification technique developed at MIT dubbed “Eulerian Magnification” to amplify subtle movements we can compare pixel color differences in frames for breathing detection in a recorded video of a baby. In the event that abnormal movement is detected from the baby an alarm will be generated to notify the parents or guardians

Efficient Probabilistic Optimal Power Flow Assessment Using an Adaptive Stochastic Spectral Embedding Surrogate Model

This paper presents an adaptive stochastic spectral embedding (ASSE) method to solve the probabilistic AC optimal power flow (AC-OPF), a critical aspect of power system operation. The proposed method can efficiently and accurately estimate the probabilistic characteristics of AC-OPF solutions. An adaptive domain partition strategy and expansion coefficient calculation algorithm are integrated to enhance its performance. Numerical studies on a 9-bus system demonstrate that the proposed ASSE method offers accurate and fast evaluations compared to the Monte Carlo simulations. A comparison with a sparse polynomial chaos expansion method, an existing surrogate model, further demonstrates its efficacy in accurately assessing the responses with strongly local behaviors.Comment: To appear in IEEE International Conference on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) 202

Synthesis and optical properties of composite films from P3HT and sandwich-like Ag-C-Ag nanoparticles

This document is the Accepted Manuscript of the following article: Lingpeng Yan, Yamin Hao, Xiaoting Feng, Yongzhen Yang, Xuguang Liu, Yongkang Chen, and Bingshe Xu, ‘Synthesis and optical properties of composite films from P3HT and sandwich-like Ag–C–Ag nanoparticles’, RSC Advances, Vol. 5(97): 79860-79867, 2015, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C5RA16854F. Content in the UH Research Archive is made available for personal research, educational, and non-commercial purposes only. Unless otherwise stated, all content is protected by copyright, and in the absence of an open license, permissions for further re-use should be sought from the publisher, the author, or other copyright holder.Sandwich-like Ag-C-Ag nanoparticles (Ag-C-Ag NPs) were synthesized under mild hydrothermal conditions in a one-step method. With this approach, Ag was not only encapsulated in the centre of an individual carbon nanosphere, but was also uniformly dispersed within the carbon matrix up to the sphere's shell. Then, poly(3-hexylthiophene):Ag-C-Ag NPs (P3HT:Ag-C-Ag NPs) composite films were prepared by a spin coating method with a chlorobenzene solution of Ag-C-Ag NPs and P3HT. Both morphology and microstructure of Ag-C-Ag NPs were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy and high resolution transmission electron microscopy. The possible formation mechanism was proposed. The results have indicated that the Ag-C-Ag NPs present many functional groups and their energy levels match with those of P3HT. It has been observed that an introduction of Ag-C-Ag NPs to P3HT can induce broad and high-absorbing spectra as well as great photoluminescence quenching of P3HT. It is evident that sandwich-like Ag-C-Ag NPs have a great potential to be a new acceptor material in photovoltaic devices.Peer reviewe

A variable-order fractal derivative model for anomalous diffusion

This paper pays attention to develop a variable-order fractal derivative model for anomalous diffusion. Previous investigations have indicated that the medium structure, fractal dimension or porosity may change with time or space during solute transport processes, results in time or spatial dependent anomalous diffusion phenomena. Hereby, this study makes an attempt to introduce a variable-order fractal derivative diffusion model, in which the index of fractal derivative depends on temporal moment or spatial position, to characterize the previous mentioned anomalous diffusion (or transport) processes. Compared with other models, the main advantages in description and the physical explanation of new model are explored by numerical simulation. Further discussions on the dissimilitude such as computational efficiency, diffusion behavior, and heavy tail phenomena of the new model, and variable-order fractional derivative model are also offered