Reversibly controlled ternary polar states and ferroelectric bias promoted by boosting square???tensile???strain

Interaction between dipoles often emerges intriguing physical phenomena, such as exchange bias in the magnetic heterostructures and magnetoelectric effect in multiferroics, which lead to advances in multifunctional heterostructures. However, the defect-dipole tends to be considered the undesired to deteriorate the electronic functionality. Here, we report deterministic switching between the ferroelectric and the pinched states by exploiting a new substrate of cubic perovskite, BaZrO3, which boosts square-tensile-strain to BaTiO3 and promotes four-variants in-plane spontaneous polarization with oxygen vacancy creation. First-principles calculations propose a complex of an oxygen vacancy and two Ti3+ ions coins a charge-neutral defect-dipole. Cooperative control of the defect-dipole and the spontaneous polarization reveals ternary in-plane polar states characterized by biased/pinched hysteresis loops. Furthermore, we experimentally demonstrate that three electrically controlled polar-ordering states lead to switchable and non-volatile dielectric states for application of non-destructive electro-dielectric memory. This discovery opens a new route to develop functional materials via manipulating defect-dipoles and offers a novel platform to advance heteroepitaxy beyond the prevalent perovskite substrates

Cogging Torque Reduction and Offset of Dual-Rotor Interior Permanent Magnet Motor in Electric Vehicle Traction Platforms

Recently, various methods have been proposed to increase the output power density of a driving motor applied to an electric vehicle. One such method is to design a structure with two motor rotors. High output density can be obtained by applying the dual rotor to the motor. However, this increases the cogging torque, which can cause high noise and vibration. In this paper, we proposed a method for reducing the cogging torque by adjusting the angle between the magnet and the dual rotor, as well as a novel method for reducing the cogging torque by angular adjustment of the slot opening based on electromagnetic field analysis. In addition, the design was implemented by applying a split core to increase the ease of manufacturing and the dot rate in the motor. We believe that high cogging torque, which is a disadvantage of dual rotor motors, can be lowered by the methods proposed in this paper. The results of this study are expected to be applicable to electric vehicles that require high output power density

Regenerative Braking Control Strategy Based on AI Algorithm to Improve Driving Comfort of Autonomous Vehicles

Recent studies on autonomous vehicles focus on improving driving efficiency and ignore driving comfort. Because acceleration and jerk affect driving comfort, we propose a comfort regenerative braking system (CRBS) that uses artificial neural networks as a vehicle-control strategy for braking conditions. An autonomous vehicle driving comfort is mainly determined by the control algorithm of the vehicle. If the passenger’s comfort is initially predicted based on acceleration and deceleration limits, the control strategy algorithm can be adjusted, which would be helpful to improve ride comfort in autonomous vehicles. We implement numerical analysis of the control strategy, ensuring reduced jerk conditions. In addition, backward propagation was applied to estimate the braking force limits of the regenerative braking systems more accurately. The developed algorithm was verified through the Car Sim and MATLAB/Simulink simulations by comparing them with the conventional braking system. The proposed CRBS offers effective regenerative braking within limits and ensures increased driving comfort to passengers

Effect of Spray Parameters on Electrical Characteristics of Printed Layer by Morphological Study

Products are manufactured as printed electronics through electro-conductive ink having properties suitable for flexible substrates. As printing process conditions affect the quality of the electronic properties of the final devices, it is essential to understand how the parameters of each process affect print quality. Spray printing, one of several printing processes, suits flexible large-area substrates and continuous processes with a uniform layer for electro-conductive aqueous ink. This study adopted the spray printing process for cellulose nanofiber (CNF)/carbon nanotube (CNT) composite conductive printing. Five spray parameters (nozzle diameter, spray speed, amount of sprayed ink, distance of nozzle to substrate, and nozzle pressure) were chosen to investigate the effects between process parameters and electrical properties relating to the morphology of the printing products. This study observed the controlling morphology through parameter adjustment and confirmed how it affects the final electrical conductivity. It means that the quality of the electronic properties can be modified by adjusting several spray process parameters

Pharmacokinetics and Metabolism of Acetyl Triethyl Citrate, a Water-Soluble Plasticizer for Pharmaceutical Polymers in Rats

Acetyl triethyl citrate (ATEC) is a water-soluble plasticizer used in pharmaceutical plasticized polymers. In this study, the pharmacokinetics and metabolism of ATEC were investigated using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) in rats. Plasma protein precipitation with methanol was used for sample preparation. For chromatographic separation, a C18 column was used. The mobile phases consisted of 0.1% formic acid and 90% acetonitrile, and gradient elution was used. The following precursor-product ion pairs were selected for reaction monitoring analysis: 319.1 m/z → 157 m/z for ATEC and 361.2 m/z → 185.1 m/z for tributyl citrate (internal standard) in positive ion mode. The LC–MS/MS method was fully validated and successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of ATEC in rats. The pharmacokinetic study showed that the volume of distribution and mean residence time of ATEC were higher after oral administration than after intravenous administration, pointing to extensive first-pass metabolism and distribution in tissue. In addition, the plasma concentration profile of the postulated metabolites of ATEC was investigated in plasma, urine, and feces. The resulting data indicated that ATEC was extensively metabolized and excreted mainly as metabolites rather than as the parent form. The developed analytical method and the data on the pharmacokinetics and metabolism of ATEC may be useful for understanding the safety and toxicity of ATEC

A Pilot Study of the Efficiency of LSTM-Based Motion Classification Algorithms Using a Single Accelerometer

Inertial sensors are widely used for classifying the motions of daily activities. Although hierarchical classification algorithms were commonly used for defined motions, deep-learning models have been used recently to classify a greater diversity of motions. In addition, ongoing studies are actively investigating algorithm efficiency (e.g., training time and accuracy). Thus, a deep-learning model was constructed in this study for the classification of a given motion based on the raw data of inertial sensors. Furthermore, the number of epochs (150, 300, 500, 750, and 900) and hidden units (100, 150, and 200) were varied in the model to determine its efficiency based on training time and accuracy, and the optimum accuracy and training time was determined. Using a basic long short-term memory (LSTM), which is a neural network known to be suitable for sequential data, the data classification training was conducted on a common desktop PC with typical specifications. The results show that the accuracy was the highest (99.82%) with 150 hidden units and 300 epochs, while the training time was also relatively short (78.15 min). In addition, the model accuracy did not always increase even when the model complexity was increased (by increasing the number of epochs and hidden units) and the training time increased as a consequence. Hence, through suitable combinations of the two factors that constitute deep-learning models according to the data, the potential development and use of efficient models have been verified. From the perspective of training optimization, this study is significant in having determined the importance of the conditions for hidden units and epochs that are suitable for the given data and the adverse effects of overtraining

Pharmacokinetic Properties of Acetyl Tributyl Citrate, a Pharmaceutical Excipient

Acetyl tributyl citrate (ATBC) is an (the Food and Drug Administration) FDA-approved substance for use as a pharmaceutical excipient. It is used in pharmaceutical coating of solid oral dosage forms such as coated tablets or capsules. However, the information of ATBC on its pharmacokinetics is limited. The aim of this study is to investigate the pharmacokinetic properties of ATBC using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometric (LC–MS/MS) analysis. ATBC was rapidly absorbed and eliminated and the bioavailability was 27.4% in rats. The results of metabolic stability tests revealed that metabolic clearance may have accounted for a considerable portion of the total clearance of ATBC. These pharmacokinetic data would be useful in studies investigating the safety and toxicity of ATBC

Controllable Layer-By-Layer CdSe/ZnS Quantum-Dot Thin Films for Enhanced Performance of Light-Emitting Diodes and Photodetectors

We developed a promising deposition method for fabricating controllable layer-by-layer (LbL) quantum-dot (QD) structures. We introduced a spray coating method to induce desired properties of QD thin films as well as to control the thickness of QD layers. An intermediate heat treatment was applied between spray pass cycles to induce rapid evaporation of the surface ligands and solvent in the QD solution, which successfully prevents the formation of clusters on spray-coated QD (Sr-QD) films. Furthermore, we observed that the LbL structure of Sr-QDs has fewer surface defects and better crystallinity, leading to improved performance of optoelectronic devices compared to conventional solution-processed devices. Thus, our study suggests that this spray coating process enables detailed control of the properties and thickness of the QD films due to the highly controllable LbL structure of QD monolayers (MLs)