Fabrication and Applications of Flexible Transparent Electrodes Based on Silver Nanowires

There has been an explosion of interests in using flexible transparent electrodes for next-generation flexible electronics, such as touch panels, flexible lighting, flexible solar cells, and wearable sensors. Silver nanowires (AgNWs) are a promising material for flexible transparent electrodes due to high electrical conductivity, optical transparency and mechanical flexibility. Despite many efforts in this field, the optoelectronic performance of AgNW networks is still not sufficient to replace the present material, indium tin oxide (ITO), due to the high junction resistance. Also, the environmental stability and the mechanical properties need enhancement for future commercialization. Many studies have attempted to overcome such problems by tuning the AgNW synthesis and optimizing the film-forming process. In this chapter, we survey recent progresses of AgNWs in flexible electronics by describing both fabrication and applications of flexible transparent AgNW electrodes. The synthesis of AgNWs and the fabrication of AgNW electrodes will be demonstrated, and the performance enhanced by various methods to suit different applications will be also discussed. Finally, technical challenges and future trends are presented for the application of transparent electrodes in flexible electronics

Leveraging Trust Relations to Improve Academic Patent Recommendation

Academic patent trading is one of the important ways for university technology transfer. Compared to industry patent trading, academic patent trading suffers from a more serious information asymmetric problem. It needs a recommendation service to help companies identify academic patents that they want to pay. However, existing recommendation approaches have limitations in facilitating academic patent trading in online patent platforms because most of them only consider patent-level characteristics. A high trust degree of a company towards academic patents can alleviate the information asymmetry and encourage trading. This study proposes a novel academic patent recommendation approach with a hybrid strategy, combining citation-based relevance, connectivity, and trustworthiness. An offline experiment is conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed recommendation approach. The results show that the proposed method performs better than the baseline methods in both accuracy and ranking

Antiseismic response research of horizontal residual heat removal pump in different seismic spectrum input directions

A million kilowatt horizontal residual heat removal pump is an essential part of the first loop residual heat removal system in nuclear power plants; it is the second most significant piece of nuclear power equipment. The residual heat removal pump of a nuclear power plant is examined by using a multiseismic spectrum, multiinput direction method to analyze its dynamic characteristics and responses. The aim of this analysis was to determine the seismic responses and possible actions to reduce damage to the integral structure. The favorable and unfavorable spectra are investigated as well. The research focuses on avoiding the damaging effects caused by earthquakes. The maximum value of seismic effect and the corresponding seismic input direction are determined, laying a speculative foundation for structural design and installation. Utilizing a response spectrum method, the antiseismic performance of a pump at SSE seismic load has been analyzed according to an algorithm using the square root of the sum of the squares. The result shows that the deformation of the impeller surface fitted with a wear ring decreases along the direction of flow in different input directions of the seismic spectrum. The largest deformation occurs at an angle of approximately 135 degrees; thus, antiseismic analysis should be conducted at this input angle to conservatively evaluate the antiseismic performance, and the installation angle designed for frequent earthquakes should avoid 135 degrees to decrease the deformation caused by the seismic force. Calculation results prove that the clearance between the rotor and the stator of the horizontal residual heat removal pump shows satisfactory seismic response performance that fulfills the requirements for antiseismic design according to the RCC-M standard; this may reduce seismic damage and avoid environmental disasters

Effects of S. cerevisiae strains on the sensory characteristics and flavor profile of kiwi wine based on E-tongue, GC-IMS and 1H-NMR

The fermentation of kiwifruit into kiwi wine (KW) can represent a strategy to reduce the economic losses linked to fruits imperfections, spoilage, over production and seasonality. In the study, Pujiang kiwifruit, a China National Geographical Indication Product, was used as raw material to produce KW fermented by four commercial S. cerevisiae strains, namely Drop Acid Yeast, DV10, SY and RW. The sensory characteristics and flavor profile of KW were assessed by means of sensory evaluation, E-tongue, GC-IMS and 1H-NMR. KW fermented by RW strain obtained the higher sensory evaluation score. E-tongue could clearly distinguish the taste differences of KW fermented by distinct S. cerevisiae strains. A total of 128 molecules were characterized by GC-IMS and 1H-NMR, indicating that the combinations of multiple technologies could provide a comprehensive flavor profile of KW. The main flavor compounds in KW pertained to the classes of esters and alcohols. Several pathways were found to be differently altered by the fermentation with the different yeast strains, namely butanoate metabolism, glycerolipid metabolism, alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism, arginine biosynthesis, arginine and proline metabolism. The present study will facilitate screening suitable S. cerevisiae strains for KW production and provide a theoretical basis for large-scale production of KW

Information Seeking by Under-Represented Communities

Final project for INST490: Integrative Capstone (Fall 2019). University of Maryland, College Park.Prince George's County Parks and Recreation offers recreation programs, facilities, and services throughout the entire county to its residents and visitors. The county operates and maintains more than 27,000 acres of parkland for parks, picnic areas, athletic fields, historic sites, community centers, and recreation facilities. The county also seeks to preserve parts of this parkland as buffers and natural open space. Parks and Recreation services include art and nature programs, fitness and sports programs, live performances, more than 90 miles of hiker/biker/equestrian trails, outdoor festivals, self-improvement classes, summer camps, teen and senior activities, and trips. While the county offers these various services and programs, more initiatives are needed to understand how Prince George's County residents are using these programs and services, or even if they are using them. Understanding how members of underrepresented communities use these services will allow the Department to better tailor what they offer for the benefit of all its residents. Through this project, the Parks and Recreation Department seeks to better understand how its residents, in particular how underrepresented communities, use its services and programs. The Department wants to know their information seeking behavior, whether different groups use the parks differently, and if certain parks features are being used more or less. To gather this information, an online and in-person survey, developed by the team member authors, was administered at various events, beginning in September 2019 and finishing in December 2019. The main point of contact throughout this project was Edith Michel, a certified Parks and Recreation Professional with more than 20 years of experience in local government within the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. Other key Parks and Recreation staff who we worked with are Alex Teaff, the Community Outreach Manager and Kira Lewis, the Acting Chief of the Public Affairs & Marketing Division.Prince George’s Count

Why do people choose courts to resolve disputes? A fuzzy-set analysis of Chinese citizens’ judicial reliance

We use the concept of judicial reliance to describe the willingness and extent to which citizens seek the help of the court in a dispute. There are obvious local differences in the degree of judicial reliance in different provinces, with some citizens more willing to resort to the courts to settle disputes, whereas others are indifferent to the courts. Based on the judicial survey data of 31 provinces in China, we use fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to explore the possible reasons for differences in citizens’ judicial reliance in China. We find that citizens’ judicial reliance is deeply influenced and restricted by five judicial conditions: transparency, corruption, independence, procedure, and professionalism. These causal conditions influence and interact with each other, thus forming six configurations that produce high judicial reliance. Among these six configurations, judicial professionalism is always the core condition. In recent years, China has indeed attached great importance to the construction of judicial professionalism, which not only optimizes the quality of the internal personnel of the court but also strengthens the public’s recognition of the court

The effect of nanoparticle softness on the interfacial dynamics of a model polymer nanocomposite

The introduction of soft organic nanoparticles (NPs) into polymer melts has recently expanded the material design space for polymer nanocomposites, compared to traditional nanocomposites that utilize rigid NPs, such as silica, metallic NPs, and other inorganic NPs. Despite advances in the fabrication and characterization of this new class of materials, the effect of NP stiffness on the polymer structure and dynamics has not been systematically investigated. Here, we use molecular dynamics to investigate the segmental dynamics of the polymer interfacial region of isolated NPs of variable stiffness in a polymer matrix. When the NP-polymer interactions are stronger than the polymer-polymer interactions, we find that the slowing of segmental dynamics in the interfacial region is more pronounced for stiff NPs. In contrast, when the NP-polymer interaction strength is smaller than the matrix interaction, the NP stiffness has relatively little impact on the changes in the polymer interfacial dynamics. We also find that the segmental relaxation time τα of segments in the NP interfacial region changes from values lower than to higher than the bulk material when the NP-polymer interaction strength is increased beyond a "critical"strength, reminiscent of a binding-unbinding transition. Both the NP stiffness and the polymer-surface interaction strength can thus greatly influence the relative segmental relaxation and interfacial mobility in comparison to the bulk material

Concentrations and gas-particle partitioning of PCDD/Fs in the urban air of Dalian, China

PCDD/Fs in the urban air of Dalian, China were monitored with high-volume active sampler from November 2009 to October 2010. The concentration of Cl4-8DD/Fs ranged from 3065 to 49538 fg m(-3), with an average of 10249 fg m(-3). The international toxic equivalents (I-TEQ) value of that was 61.8-1182 fg m(-3), with an average of 235 fg m(-3), which was comparable to those in the other urban locations around the world. It was found that the Cl4-8DD/Fs appeared to be present mainly in the particle phase during winter, spring and autumn, while during summer which were dominantly in gas phase. The ratio of Cl4-8DD/Fs present in particle phase increased with the increasing level of chlorination. The concentrations of PCDFs and PCDDs decreased with the increase of chlorinated level, while the concentrations of 2,3,7,8-PCDDs congeners increased with the increase of chlorination level. The homolog profiles of the concentrations of PCDFs presented were higher than those of the PCDDs, which indicated the PCDD/Fs pollution source of the air in Dalian was characteristic for thermal source pollution. The correlation analysis of meteorological parameters with the concentrations of Cl4-8CDD/Fs was conducted using SPSS packages, and it was found that the ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure were important factors influence the concentration of PCDD/Fs in the air. The respiratory risk and intake dioxins of the residents around the sampling sites were studied in the paper. It was found that Junge-Pankow model was much more accurate in predicting the gas-particle partitioning behavior of PCDD/Fs homologues during winter, while the Harner-Bidleman model shows better agreement with the measured data during winter and summer