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•The molecular-gated unidirectional actuator is driven by temperature and humidity.•This actuator protects customers from environmental stress as well as early warning.•LBL ...self-assembly realizes functionalization and engineering of protective devices.•The credible tolerance of actuators depend on the outstanding self-healing capacity.
More attention has paid to health events caused by the epidemic and harmful interferences where personal protective equipment (PPE) become of vital importance. Traditional protection can only provide limited defenses. Thus, comprehensive PPE tailored with more practical performances and more facile routines gets highly desirable. However, functional integrations and engineering implementations of such PPE remain challenging. Herein, a dual ambiences-driven molecular gating-based unidirectional actuator for multi-mode personal protection is designed. To fabricate this Janus actuating film, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) and poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) were deposited as a thermal-sensitive side while alginate, 2-hydroxypropyltrimethyl ammonium chloride chitosan, polyvinyl alcohol and poly-dopamine nanoparticles were overlaid onto the other for humidity response via layer-by-layer self-assembling. As a result, pleasurable humidity/temperarure management (55%/33 ℃ against adverse conditions), respiratory detection (responsive signal to exhaled air), oil repellent for anti-bacterial-adhesion (antibacterial rate > 92.2%), transparent visual-monitoring hazardous compounds (opaque to transparency: 0 ∼ 85.3%), electromagnetic shielding (>15 dB), credible-tolerance of damage (self-healing efficiency > 91.7%) were integrated into a single actuator (PROTECT actuator). Our PROTECT actuator could protect customers from environmental stress as well as early warning. This strategy opens a new era of novel custom-tailorable and easy-to-obtain protection devices, especially noncontact-perception systems and all-round defensive setups.
This study presented relevant aspects about the Amazonian environment and how it impacts the thermal comfort of domestic buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis) raised in the Eastern Amazon. Furthermore, ...strategies for monitoring and mitigating animal heat stress are presented, based on research results with the species. Although domestic buffaloes are considered adaptable animals, exposure to intense solar radiation causes thermal discomfort. This condition is expressed in biophysical indicators, in metabolic, endocrine, behavioral responses, and in body thermographic patterns. Therefore, the biometeorological monitoring of production is crucial to support decision-making regarding environmental management strategies, genetic selection of thermotolerant individuals, and increase in animal welfare. Lastly, the use of silvopastoral systems can help to provide higher thermal comfort, which is a condition that directly impacts the productivity of milk and meat buffaloes when they are raised in tropical regions, such as in the Eastern Amazon.
RESUMO: Objetivou-se apresentar aspectos relevantes sobre o ambiente amazônico e como este impacta no conforto térmico de búfalos domésticos (Bubalus bubalis) criados na Amazônia Oriental. Adicionalmente, são apresentadas estratégias para monitoramento e mitigação do estresse térmico animal, a partir de resultados de pesquisa com a espécie. Apesar dos búfalos domésticos serem considerados animais adaptáveis, a exposição à intensa radiação solar provoca desconforto térmico. Essa condição é expressa em indicadores biofísicos, nas respostas metabólicas, endócrinas, comportamentais e nos padrões termográficos corporais. Assim, o monitoramento biometeorológico da produção é crucial para subsidiar tomadas de decisão em relação a estratégias de manejo ambiental, seleção genética de indivíduos termotolerantes e incremento do bem-estar animal. Por fim, o uso de sistemas silvipastoris pode auxiliar na oferta de maior conforto térmico, que é uma condição que impacta diretamente na produtividade de bubalinos de leite e carne, quando estes são criados em regiões tropicais, como na Amazônia Oriental.
High temperature corrosion poses a great threat to boiler water wall safe operation. To investigate the corrosion root cause, a 300 MW level boiler water wall high temperature H2S corrosion case was ...reported. The typical hydrogen sulfide H2S corrosion feature was large amounts of sulfur which could be found in the cut down sample tube corrosion layer, with a thickness of 482 μm. In addition, huge amounts of lead (Pb) could be found in the corrosion layer, which resulted from the lead sulfide (PbS) deposition when the high temperature flue gas condensed at the water wall tubes. Meanwhile, the sulfur in the corrosion layer was closely related to the H2S concentration in the water wall ambience. The related ambience test showed that the H2S could achieve up to 1000 ppm when the boiler was in operation, far larger than the suggested reference value of 100 ppm. Hence, the overlarge H2S concentration was a vital factor for the tube corrosion. To further investigate the reason why the H2S was kept in such high concentration in the boiler long term operation, and the reasons for the over-high sulfur content in the coal and the over-large diameter of the imaginary circle of primary air (DICPA), two factors were obtained. The peak sulfur content reached 2.5% and the suggested sulfur content was below 1%. The DICPA was so large (1580 mm) that the pulverized coal easily scoured the water wall tubes, which would boost the thinning process of the tubes. To relieve the high temperature corrosion, improve the coal qualities, decrease the DICPA, adjust the operation diameter and adopt a coating technology four measures were suggested.
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•Surface and bulk oxygen vacancies were formed depending on the annealing conditions.•Surface oxygen vacancy can expand light absorption and improve charge separation.•SETOV led to ...visible light absorption, while played as the recombination center.•TiO2 with two kinds of oxygen vacancies exhibited different photocatalytic mechanism.
The surface and bulk oxygen vacancy have a prominent effect on the photocatalytic performance of TiO2. In this study, TiO2 possessing different types and concentration of oxygen vacancies were prepared by annealing nanotube titanic acid (NTA) at various temperatures in air or vacuum atmosphere. TiO2 with the unitary bulk single-electron-trapped oxygen vacancies (SETOVs) formed when NTA were calcined in air. Whereas, TiO2 with both bulk and surface oxygen vacancies were obtained when NTA were annealed in vacuum. The series of TiO2 with different oxygen vacancies were systematically characterized by TEM, XRD, PL, XPS, ESR, and TGA. The PL and ESR analysis verified that surface oxygen vacancies and more bulk oxygen vacancies could form in vacuum atmosphere. Surface oxygen vacancies can trap electron and hinder the recombination of photo-generated charges, while bulk SETOVs act as the recombination center. The surface or bulk oxygen vacancies attributed different roles on the photo-absorbance and activity, leading that the sample of NTA-A400 displayed higher hydrogen evolution rate under UV light, whereas NTA-V400 displayed higher hydrogen evolution rate under visible light because bulk SETOVs can improve visible light absorption because sub-band formed by bulk SETOVs prompted the secondary transition of electron excited.
The increasing consideration toward thin-film organic-inorganic halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is because of their high-power conversion efficiency that arises from several advantages of ...perovskite materials, including solution processability and low fabrication cost. However, we have not been able to maximize these advantages in the existing halide perovskite (PVK) solar cell technology as a consequence of structural and material limitations. Herein, we have developed a solution to these drawbacks by substituting the conventional metal-oxide photoelectrodes with materials doped with carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The mixed cation PSCs fabricated in ambient air were unstable with the PVK on top of zinc oxide (ZnO) due to the presence of hydroxyl groups on the ZnO surface. To suppress the hydroxyl groups, we incorporated CNTs in the ZnO film. On adding CNTs, the ZnO film showed more significant charge extraction, with the recombination rate in the PSC reducing due to higher conductivity and lower trap states in CNT-doped ZnO. Our results demonstrate that the optimized PSC based on the CNT additive showed PCE up to 15%. With this surface modification approach, we could show hysteresis-free and stable PSCs, with lesser decomposition after ∼2000 h of storage in a moist ambience. This work presents novelty in the material, cost, and assembly of stable and effective perovskite solar cells.
(a) The sandwich structure of the planar device based on the ZnO ETL and fully-processed in ambient air. (b) Significant improvement in the current density of the PSCs after using 1D carbon nanotubes in the ZnO ETLs.
Highly programmed, digitally-enabled outdoor public spaces for social gathering and cultural performance are now common features of urban environments. These spaces are popular because of their low ...barriers to entry, and because they facilitate casual, serendipitous encounters between a range of different publics. Entering one of these spaces is to inhabit an ‘ambient’ participatory mode: multi-centred, mobile and multi-sensory, conforming neither to the formal viewing experience of ‘the audience’, nor to the casual, distracted disposition of ‘the street’. Their success in terms of widening public engagement and stimulating urban vitality has informed major policy shifts in creativity-led urban regeneration and creative place-making. However, a deeper understanding of the kind of cultural participation they shape eludes prevailing critical and evaluative frameworks. This article is based around a large-scale event celebrating India's 70th year of Independence held at Melbourne's Federation Square. We use ambience as a conceptual tool to expand common notions of cultural participation, revealing the complex socio-spatial relationships that coalesce through the event. Capturing ‘ambient participation’ reveals, in Paul Carter's (2005) terms, the potential of these networked spaces to ‘model a different kind of political community, to open up a place of meeting differently’ that exceeds the celebratory rhetoric around global mass culture, normative frameworks of multiculturalism, and romantic notions of community.
•The concept of 'ambient participation' is used to capture the new dynamics of cultural participation in public space.•We introduce a novel methodology to capture 'ambient participation' by combining digital ethnography, spatial analysis, and interviews.•A celebration at Melbourne's Federation Square is used to demonstrate how ambient participation differs from traditional modes of cultural participation.•The article features central stakeholders of Federation Square: architect Donald Bates, artist Paul Carter, and curator Kate Brennan.
•Next-generation radiative coolers require dynamic emissivity modulation.•Several modulation strategies are revised in this paper from different research fields.•Designs, materials, fabrication ...techniques and modulation performances are compared.•Most effective strategies and underexplored, yet promising, pathways are delineated.
Passive daytime radiative cooling represents one of the boldest answers to tackle the future cooling needs of the built environment and to mitigate urban heat island effects. Recent developments in the field targeted sub-ambience with several successful examples. On the other side, heating demands may get exacerbated unless effective countermeasures against overcooling are identified, especially in wintertime or heating-dominated climates. This review aims at collecting state-of-the-art technologies and techniques to dynamically control the heat transfer to and from the radiative emitter and ultimately modulate its cooling capacity. Potential solutions are selected from different applicative fields, including spacecraft thermal control, thermal camouflage and electronics. Environmentally-responsive solutions are analyzed in depth given their perfect match with radiative cooling design requirements. Among them, VO2-tuned Fabry-Perot resonators are given particular emphasis, owing to their proven applicability. Active solutions are presented for completeness, but in less detail. Underlying principles, structural composition and experimental/simulated results are detailed and discussed to identify prominent pathways towards technically and economically effective integration in the built environment.
Perovskite (PVSK) photovoltaics have been a promising field in the exploitation of renewable energy due to the fascinating performances of PVSK materials and devices. Although the efficiency is ...gradually approaching that of traditional solar cells, the stability is still a challenge. Hence, tomato lycopene, a botanic antioxidant, is introduced as a modification layer on the PVSK absorber layer to prevent moisture and oxygen erosion, for enhanced both intrinsic and environmental stabilities. This inserted protection layer can also interact with the PVSK material through carbon‐halogen bonds and influence its crystallinity. Therefore, PVSK films are obtained with less defects and better intrinsic stability. The device achieved a champion outdoor efficiency at AM 1.5G more than 21% and its indoor efficiency at 1000 lux can reach 40.24%. In addition, the efficiency can keep almost 90% of the original value after exposure to wet oxygen ambience for 1000 h. The antioxidant gives a unique perspective towards enhancing the stability of solar cells
Lycopene, a botanic antioxidant, is introduced to modify the perovskite film for adjusting crystallization through carbon‐halogen bonds, and preventing moisture and oxygen erosion. Therefore, the optimized device yields efficiencies of 21.04% under 100 mW cm−2 and 40.24% at 1000 lux. It also retains almost 90% of the original efficiency value after exposure to wet oxygen ambience for 1000 h.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant consequences for Americans' daily lives. Many people are spending more time in their homes due to work from home arrangements, stay at home orders, and ...closures of businesses and public gathering spaces. In this study, we explored how one's attachment to their home may help to buffer their mental health during this stressful time. Data were collected from a three-wave, longitudinal sampling (n=289) surveyed at baseline, two, and four weeks after. We found a clear relationship between an individual's attachment to home and positive mental health. Across all three waves, home attachment was negatively associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Furthermore, participants' home attachment at baseline was predictive of subsequent mental health two weeks after, which suggests that one's relationship to their home was particularly important during the initial onset of the national response to the outbreak. Predictors of home attachment included conscientiousness, agreeableness, and restorative ambience. Over the course of the study, kinship ambience also emerged as a predictor of home attachment. In the midst of increased mental health concerns and limited resources due to COVID-19, the home may buffer some individuals from depressive and anxiety-related symptoms by functioning as a source of refuge, security, and stability.
•Study tests relationship between home attachment and mental health during pandemic.•Home attachment negatively associated with stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms.•Attachment during the initial adjustment to COVID-19 was particularly important.•Home ambience of kinship became a stronger predictor of home attachment over time.
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