Owing to their capability of bypassing conventional high-priced and inflexible silicon based electronics to manufacture a variety of devices on flexible substrates by using large-scale and ...high-volume printing techniques, printed electronics (PE) have attracted increasing attention in the field of manufacturing industry for electronic devices. This simple and cost-effective approach could enhance current methods of constructing a patterned surface for nanomaterials and offer opportunities for developing fully-printed functional devices, especially offering the possibility of ubiquitous low-cost and flexible devices. This review presents a summary of work to date on the inorganic nanomaterials involved in PE applications, focused on the utilization of inorganic nanomaterials-based inks in the successful preparation of printed conductive patterns, electrodes, sensors, thin film transistors (TFTs) and other micro-/nanoscale devices. The printing techniques, sintering methods and printability of functional inks with their associated challenges are discussed, and we look forward so you can glimpse the future of PE applications.
Owing to their capability of bypassing conventional high-priced and inflexible silicon based electronics to manufacture a variety of devices on flexible substrates by using large-scale and high-volume printing techniques, printed electronics (PE) have attracted increasing attention in the field of manufacturing industry for electronic devices.
The primary developing trends in flexible and stretchable electronics involve the innovation of material synthesis, mechanical design, and fabrication strategies that employ soft substrates. The ...biggest challenge is that the entire electronic system must allow not only bending but also stretching. Therefore, stretchable conductors become a crucial construction unit for the connection of working circuits of various stretchable devices. Owing to the success of stretchable conductors, various stretchable electronic devices are fabricated with the help of multiple manufacturing strategies, including stretchable heaters, stretchable energy conversion and storage devices, stretchable transistors, sensors and artificial skin. The continuous development of stretchable electronics has led to the new functionality of transparency, and the fabrication of transparent stretchable electronic devices has gained a lot of interest due to the potential of wearable electronic systems. This review presents technology developments in the preparation of related materials, fabrication strategies and various applications of stretchable electronics. It focuses on the fundamental structural design, mechanisms, and tactics, as well as on challenges and opportunities in the manufacture of stretchable electronic devices and their various applications.
Potassium (K^+) is one of the essential macronutrients for plant growth and development. K^+ uptake from environment and K^+ translocation in plants are conducted by K^+ channels and transporters. In ...this study, we demonstrated that KT/HAK/KUP transporter KUP7 plays crucial roles in K^+ uptake and translocation in Arabidopsis root. The kup7 mutant exhibited a sensitive phenotype on Iow-K^+ medium, whose leaves showed chlorosis symptoms compared with wild-type plants. Loss of function of KUP7 led to a reduction of K^+ uptake rate and K^+ content in xylem sap under W-deficient conditions. Thus, the K^+ content in kup7 shoot was significantly reduced under Iow-K^+ conditions. Localization analysis revealed that KUP7 was predominantly targeted to the plasma membrane. The complementation assay in yeast suggested that KUP7 could mediate K^+ transport. In addition, phosphorylation on S80, S719, and S721 was important for KUP7 activity. KUP7 was ubiquitously expressed in many organs/tissues, and showed a higher expression level inArabidopsis root. Together, our data demonstrated that KUP7 is crucial for K^+ uptake inArabidopsis root and might be also involved in K^+ transport into xylem sap, affecting K^+ translocation from root toward shoot, especially under K^+-Iimited conditions.
Deeply involved with dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease has becoming the leading cause of mortality since the early twentieth century in the modern world. Whose correlation with metabolic syndrome ...(MetS), hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has been well established. We conducted a 9-year longitudinal study to identify the association between easily measured lipid parameters, future MetS, hypertension and T2DM by gender and age distribution. Divided into three groups by age (young age: < 40, middle age: ≥ 40 and < 65 and old age: ≥ 65), 7670 participants, receiving standard medical inspection at Tri-Service General Hospital (TSGH) in Taiwan, had been enrolled in this study. Atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) was a logarithmically transformed ratio of triglyceride (TG)/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). Through multivariate regression analyses, the hazard ratio (HR) of AIP for MetS, hypertension and T2DM were illustrated. AIP revealed significant association with all the aforementioned diseases through the entire three models for both genders. Additionally, AIP revealed significant correlation which remained still after fully adjustment in MetS, hypertension, and T2DM groups for subjects aged 40-64-year-old. Nevertheless, for participants aged above 65-year-old, AIP only demonstrated significant association in MetS group. Our results explore the promising value of AIP to determine the high-risk subjects, especially meddle-aged ones, having MetS, hypertension, and T2DM in the present and the future.
Advancements in residential net-zero energy buildings (NZEBs) could significantly reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. NZEB design considerations broadly categorize into energy ...infrastructure connections, renewable energy sources, and energy-efficiency measures. There is a lack of systematic literature review focused on recent progress in residential NZEBs. Therefore, this work provides an overview of each category including recent developments (last ≈ 10 years), aiming to provide references and support of wider and more successful implementation of residential NZEBs throughout the globe. The discussed energy infrastructure connections include electrical grids, district heating/cooling networks, and energy storage options including vehicle-to-home and hydrogen storage. Renewable energy sources considered here are solar photovoltaic and solar thermal, wind, and biomass including micro combined heat and power (CHP) systems. The final category detailed is energy-efficiency measures, which include improved building envelope designs, efficient HVAC systems, efficient domestic hot water systems, and phase change material integration. Within these categories there are many technology options, which makes selecting the ‘best’ configuration more difficult but allows design flexibility to adapt to local climates and other considerations (i.e. building codes, energy resources, costs). This paper provides references and highlights technology options to achieve residential NZEBs throughout the world.
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•Overview of net-zero energy building (NZEB) development, research, strategies, and implementation targets.•Renewable energy sources: solar photovoltaic (PV), solar PV/T, solar thermal, wind, biomass, combined heat & power.•Infrastructure connections: electric grid, district heating/cooling, energy storage.•Energy-efficiency measures: building envelope design, HVAC, hot water, phase-change material.
Nitrogen (N), potassium (K), and phosphorus (P) are essential macronutrients for plant growth and development, and their availability affects crop yield. Compared with N, the relatively low ...availability of K and P in soils limits crop production and thus threatens food security and agricultural sustainability. Improvement of plant nutrient utilization efficiency provides a potential route to overcome the effects of K and P deficiencies. Investigation of the molecular mechanisms underlying how plants sense, absorb, transport, and use K and P is an important prerequisite to improve crop nutrient utilization efficiency. In this review, we summarize current understanding of K and P transport and signaling in plants, mainly taking Arabidopsis thaliana and rice (Oryza sativa) as examples. We also discuss the mechanisms coordinating transport of N and K, as well as P and N.
Potassium (K) and phosphorus (P) are essential macronutrients for plant growth, development, and crop yield. This review summarizes the current understanding of K and P transport and signaling in plants and discusses the mechanisms coordinating N (nitrogen), K, and P.
High‐performance MoS2 transistors are developed using atomic hexagonal boron nitride as a tunneling layer to reduce the Schottky barrier and achieve low contact resistance between metal and MoS2. ...Benefiting from the ultrathin tunneling layer within 0.6 nm, the Schottky barrier is significantly reduced from 158 to 31 meV with small tunneling resistance.
In this paper, we focus on the problem of driving a general network to a selected cluster synchronization pattern by means of a pinning control strategy. Sufficient conditions are presented to ...guarantee the realization of the cluster synchronization pattern for all initial values. We also show the detailed steps on how to construct the coupling matrix and to modify the control strengths. Moreover, the method of adapting the coupling strength is provided to refine the result.
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•The working mechanism of ZABs is introduced, especially oxygen electrochemistry.•Neutral and near-neutral electrolytes were reviewed for ZABs.•Oxygen catalysts were summarized within ...or beyond neutral ZABs.•A brief outlook was proposed for electrolytes and catalysts in neutral ZABs.
Rechargeable Zn-air batteries (R-ZABs) are promising electrochemical energy storage devices with the advantages of high theoretical energy density, low cost of Zn metal and environment-friendliness. ZABs with neutral electrolytes can avoid or mitigate many side reactions harassing alkaline ZABs because neutral electrolyte is mild and green, which is conducive to battery life. However, the development of neutral ZABs is still in an initial stage. In this review, we would like to summarize the recent progress of neutral electrolytes and electrocatalysts, which are applied in or beyond ZABs. The working mechanism of ZABs is first introduced, especially oxygen electrochemistry on cathode. After elucidating the disadvantages of alkaline electrolytes, several neutral and near-neutral electrolytes are then summarized on developments as well as challenges, such as inorganic/organic salt solutions, high concentration electrolytes and quasi-solid electrolytes. Next, different cathode structures and their impacts on catalysts are presented. The latest progress of different catalysts in neutral electrolytes are classified and summarized, including metal oxides, metal phosphides/sulfides, metal phosphates, single-atom catalysts, etc. Finally, we conclude with a summary and propose a brief outlook for the future developments of electrolytes and oxygen catalysts applied in neutral ZABs.
In this article, a novel fuzzy <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">\alpha</tex-math></inline-formula>-neighborhood operator with reflexivity is constructed and a new fuzzy rough set model ...based on the fuzzy <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">\alpha</tex-math></inline-formula>-neighborhood operator is proposed. Aiming at decision-making in information systems with real-valued information systems (RVISs), we first utilize data normalization method to effectively transform RVISs into information systems with fuzzy-valued information systems (FVISs). Then, we use the fuzzy <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">\alpha</tex-math></inline-formula>-neighborhood-based fuzzy rough set model to convert FVISs into information systems with intuitionistic fuzzy-valued information systems (IFVISs). By adopting the idea of the PROMETHEE II method, we develop three different sorting decision-making schemes on IFVISs, which consist of the subtraction of intuitionistic fuzzy numbers, sorting functions, and intimacy coefficients. Finally, numerical experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our method. Comparative studies and Spearman rank correlation analyses explain the superiority of our schemes. Experimental results verify the stability of the performance of our strategy.