Nitrogen-doped Nanoporous Carbon Membranes Functionalized with Co/CoP Janus-type nanocrystals as Hydrogen Evolution Electrode in Both Acid and Alkaline Environment

Self-supported electrocatalysts being generated and employed directly as electrode for energy conversion has been intensively pursued in the fields of materials chemistry and energy. Herein, we report a synthetic strategy to prepare freestanding hierarchically structured, nitrogen-doped nanoporous graphitic carbon membranes functionalized with Janus-type Co/CoP nanocrystals (termed as HNDCM-Co/CoP), which were successfully applied as a highly-efficient, binder-free electrode in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Benefited from multiple structural merits, such as high degree of graphitization, three-dimensionally interconnected micro-/meso-/macropores, uniform nitrogen-doping, well-dispersed Co/CoP nanocrystals as well as the confinement effect of the thin carbon layer on the nanocrystals, HNDCM-Co/CoP exhibited superior electrocatalytic activity and long-term operation stability for HER under both acid and alkaline conditions. As a proof-of-concept of practical usage, a macroscopic piece of HNDCM-Co/CoP of 5.6 cm x 4 cm x 60 um in size was prepared in our laboratory. Driven by a solar cell, electroreduction of water in alkaline condition (pH 14) was performed, and H2 has been produced at a rate of 16 ml/min, demonstrating its potential as real-life energy conversion systems.Comment: 31 pages, 15 page

RITA: Boost Autonomous Driving Simulators with Realistic Interactive Traffic Flow

High-quality traffic flow generation is the core module in building simulators for autonomous driving. However, the majority of available simulators are incapable of replicating traffic patterns that accurately reflect the various features of real-world data while also simulating human-like reactive responses to the tested autopilot driving strategies. Taking one step forward to addressing such a problem, we propose Realistic Interactive TrAffic flow (RITA) as an integrated component of existing driving simulators to provide high-quality traffic flow for the evaluation and optimization of the tested driving strategies. RITA is developed with consideration of three key features, i.e., fidelity, diversity, and controllability, and consists of two core modules called RITABackend and RITAKit. RITABackend is built to support vehicle-wise control and provide traffic generation models from real-world datasets, while RITAKit is developed with easy-to-use interfaces for controllable traffic generation via RITABackend. We demonstrate RITA's capacity to create diversified and high-fidelity traffic simulations in several highly interactive highway scenarios. The experimental findings demonstrate that our produced RITA traffic flows exhibit all three key features, hence enhancing the completeness of driving strategy evaluation. Moreover, we showcase the possibility for further improvement of baseline strategies through online fine-tuning with RITA traffic flows.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 3 table

Further results on constructions of generalized bent Boolean functions

National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61303263, 61309034)Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2015XKMS086)China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Funded Project (Grant No. 2015T80600)National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61303263, 61309034)Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2015XKMS086)China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Funded Project (Grant No. 2015T80600

Impacts of Energy Price on Agricultural Production, Energy Consumption, and Carbon Emission in China: A Price Endogenous Partial Equilibrium Model Analysis

Energy market volatility will have systemic effects on agricultural production, energy consumption and carbon emissions. This paper aims to evaluate the impacts of energy price on agricultural production, energy consumption, and carbon emission in China. To achieve the objective, this paper, firstly, constructed a price endogenous partial equilibrium model, and then designed four scenarios of energy price fluctuations, finally evaluating the impacts of energy price fluctuations on agricultural production and its energy consumption and carbon emission. The results revealed that: (1) The impacts on agricultural production are very limited, but higher energy price will result in producers’ welfare loss by 0.6% to 1.4%, under different scenarios. (2) Energy price drives negative impacts on agricultural energy consumption and carbon emission, 1.6%/3.2% and 1.3%/2.6%, respectively, in low/high amplitude scenarios. (3) Heterogeneous impacts are confirmed in the regional analysis; South China is simulated to be the most sensitive area. To mitigate the impacts from energy price and reduce carbon emission in agriculture, several policy implications have recently been proposed, including strengthening supervision of the energy market, constructing an energy saving price-setting mechanism, launching policy instruments to improve energy efficiencies and facilitate cleaner farming techniques, and formulating specific measurements of energy saving and emission reduction for different regions

China’s Carbon Emissions and Trading Pilot, Political Connection, and Innovation Input of Publicly Listed Private Firms

Taking China’s carbon emissions and trading pilot (CCETP) as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper examines the impact of CCETP on publicly listed private firms’ innovation input and the moderating effect of the firms’ political connection based on the difference-in-differences model. The results show that CCETP has a significantly positive effect on the innovation input of Chinese publicly listed private firms. Moreover, the political connection of executives exhibits a positive moderating effect on CCETP’s impact on innovation input. Meanwhile, the effect is more significant in regions with high environmental protection investment and large publicly listed private firms. The conclusions could provide some policy enlightenment for China’s carbon market, as well as a rational adjustment of the relationship between political connection and innovation input of publicly listed private firms in the future