934 research outputs found
Farm Family Household Production and Rural Development
Community/Rural/Urban Development, Farm Management,
On Tools Making Minds: an Archaeological Perspective on Human Cognitive Evolution
Using a model of cognition as extended and enactive, we examine the role of materiality in making minds as exemplified by lithics and writing, forms associated with conceptual thought and meta-awareness of conceptual domains. We address ways in which brain functions may change in response to interactions with material forms, the attributes of material forms that may cause such change, and the spans of time required for neurofunctional reorganization. We also offer three hypotheses for investigating co-influence and change in cognition and material culture.publishedVersio
Local structure of glassy lithium phosphorus oxynitride thin films: a combined experimental and ab initio approach
Lithium phosphorus oxynitride (LiPON) is an amorphous solid-state lithium ion
conductor displaying exemplary cyclability against lithium metal anodes. There
is no definitive explanation for this stability due to the limited
understanding of the structure of LiPON. We provide a structural model of
RF-sputtered LiPON via experimental and computational spectroscopic methods.
Information about the short-range structure results from 1D and 2D solid-state
nuclear magnetic resonance experiments investigating chemical shift anisotropy
and dipolar interactions. These results are compared with first principles
chemical shielding calculations of Li-P-O/N crystals and ab initio molecular
dynamics-generated amorphous LiPON models to unequivocally identify the glassy
structure as primarily isolated phosphate monomers with N incorporated in both
apical and as bridging sites in phosphate dimers. Structural results suggest
LiPON's stability is a result of its glassy character. Free-standing LiPON
films are produced that exhibit a high degree of flexibility highlighting the
unique mechanical properties of glassy materials
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Revealing Nanoscale Solid-Solid Interfacial Phenomena for Long-Life and High-Energy All-Solid-State Batteries.
Enabling long cyclability of high-voltage oxide cathodes is a persistent challenge for all-solid-state batteries, largely because of their poor interfacial stabilities against sulfide solid electrolytes. While protective oxide coating layers such as LiNbO3 (LNO) have been proposed, its precise working mechanisms are still not fully understood. Existing literature attributes reductions in interfacial impedance growth to the coating's ability to prevent interfacial reactions. However, its true nature is more complex, with cathode interfacial reactions and electrolyte electrochemical decomposition occurring simultaneously, making it difficult to decouple each effect. Herein, we utilized various advanced characterization tools and first-principles calculations to probe the interfacial phenomenon between solid electrolyte Li6PS5Cl (LPSCl) and high-voltage cathode LiNi0.85Co0.1Al0.05O2 (NCA). We segregated the effects of spontaneous reaction between LPSCl and NCA at the interface and quantified the intrinsic electrochemical decomposition of LPSCl during cell cycling. Both experimental and computational results demonstrated improved thermodynamic stability between NCA and LPSCl after incorporation of the LNO coating. Additionally, we revealed the in situ passivation effect of LPSCl electrochemical decomposition. When combined, both these phenomena occurring at the first charge cycle result in a stabilized interface, enabling long cyclability of all-solid-state batteries
The Nature of the Faint Chandra X-ray Sources in the Galactic Centre
Recent Chandra observations have revealed a large population of faint X-ray
point sources in the Galactic Centre. The observed population consists of about
2000 faint sources in the luminosity range ~10^31-10^33 erg/s. The majority of
these sources (70%) are described by hard spectra, while the rest are rather
soft. The nature of these sources still remains unknown. Belczynski & Taam
(2004) demonstrated that X-ray binaries with neutron star or black hole
accretors may account for most of the soft sources, but are not numerous enough
to account for the observed number and X-ray properties of the faint hard
sources. A population synthesis calculation of the Galactic Centre region has
been carried out. Our results indicate that the numbers and X-ray luminosities
of intermediate polars are consistent with the observed faint hard Galactic
Centre population.Comment: resubmitted to ApJ Letters, changes to text (i.e., Discussion) and
Reference
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