Scalable Applications Research Articles

Vanadium Dioxide-Based Terahertz Metamaterial Devices Switchable between Transmission and Absorption.

Terahertz metamaterial plays a significant role in the development of imaging, sensing, and communications. The function of conventional terahertz metamaterials was fixed after fabrication. They can only achieve a single function and do not have adjustable characteristics, which greatly limits the scalability and practical application of metamaterial. Here, we propose a vanadium dioxide-based terahertz metamaterial device, which is switchable between being a transmitter and an absorber. The transmission and absorption characteristics and temperature tunable properties of phase change metamaterials in the terahertz band were investigated. As the temperature of vanadium dioxide is varied between 20 °C and 80 °C, the device can switch between transmission and quad-band resonance absorption at the terahertz frequency range, with a high transmission rate of over 80% and a peak absorbance of 98.3%, respectively. In addition, when the device acts as an absorber, the proposed metamaterial device is tunable, and the modulation amplitude can reach 94.3%; while the device is used as a transmissive device, the modulation amplitude of the transmission peak at 81%. The results indicate that the proposed metamaterial device can promote the applications of terahertz devices, such as switching, modulation, and sensing.

Scalable fabrication, compartmentalization and applications of living microtissues.

Living microtissues are used in a multitude of applications as they more closely resemble native tissue physiology, as compared to 2D cultures. Microtissues are typically composed of a combination of cells and materials in varying combinations, which are dictated by the applications’ design requirements. Their applications range wide, from fundamental biological research such as differentiation studies to industrial applications such as cruelty-free meat production. However, their translation to industrial and clinical settings has been hindered due to the lack of scalability of microtissue production techniques. Continuous microfluidic processes provide an opportunity to overcome this limitation as they offer higher throughput production rates as compared to traditional batch techniques, while maintaining reproducible control over microtissue composition and size. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of the current approaches to engineer microtissues with a focus on the advantages of, and need for, the use of continuous processes to produce microtissues in large quantities. Finally, an outlook is provided that outlines the required developments to enable large-scale microtissue fabrication using continuous processes.

Scalable Strategy to Directly Prepare 2D and 3D Liquid Metal Circuits Based on Laser-Induced Selective Metallization.

Selective wetting of a gallium-based liquid metal on copper circuits is one of the ways to prepare liquid metal circuits. However, the complex fabrication processes of an adhesion layer between copper circuits (or patterns) and substrates were still inevitable, limiting scalable applications. Our work developed a facile way to directly prepare 2D and 3D liquid metal circuits by combining laser-induced selective metallization and selective wetting for the first time. The copper template was obtained on elastomers using laser-induced selective metallization, and high-resolution liquid metal circuits were fabricated by brushing Galinstan on the copper template in the alkali solution. The distribution of Cu element not only was on the top surface but also extended to the interior of the elastomer substrate. This revealed that the Cu layer prepared by laser-induced selective metallization is born to firmly embed into the substrate, which endowed the circuits with strong adhesion, reaching the highest 5B level. Moreover, the prepared liquid metal circuits (or patterns) had a typical layered structure. The liquid metal circuits exhibit good flexibility, stretchability, self-healing ability, and acid-alkaline resistance. Compared with the traditional methods of patterning liquid metals, fabricating liquid metal circuits based on laser-induced selective metallization has irreplaceable advantages, such as strong adhesion between circuits and substrate, fabricating 3D circuits, good acid-alkaline resistance, cost-effectiveness, maskless use, time savings, arbitrary design of patterns, and convenient operation, which endow this method with great application prospect.

Improving the electrochemical performance of lithium-sulfur batteries by interface modification with a bifunctional electrolyte additive

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries with sulfur cathode and lithium anode are considered as a promising candidate in the next generation of high specific energy secondary batteries. However, the scalable application of Li-S batteries is limited by the unstable electrode/electrolyte interfaces. Herein, a novel bifunctional electrolyte additive, trifluoromethane sulfonamide (TFMSA), is introduced to stabilize both electrode/electrolyte interfaces to enhance the electrochemical performance of Li-S batteries. The TFMSA molecule can not only alleviate the passivation of the sulfur cathode surface, but also suppress Li dendrites growth and prevent the lithium anode from the corrosion of polysulfides. As a result, the assembled Li-S battery with TFMSA-containing electrolyte displays excellent long-cycle performance and rate capability. Moreover, the Li||Li symmetric cell using TFMSA electrolyte can stably cycle for 1200 h at 1 mA cm−2 and 1 mAh cm−2. The Li-S pouch cell with TFMSA also exhibits outstanding performance, indicating the prospect of practical application. This work sheds light on an innovative idea for interface modification via an electrolyte additive to overcome the inherent issues of Li-S batteries.

Scalable Artificial Intelligence for Earth Observation Data Using Hopsworks

This paper introduces the Hopsworks platform to the entire Earth Observation (EO) data community and the Copernicus programme. Hopsworks is a scalable data-intensive open-source Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform that was jointly developed by Logical Clocks and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology for building end-to-end Machine Learning (ML)/Deep Learning (DL) pipelines for EO data. It provides the full stack of services needed to manage the entire life cycle of data in ML. In particular, Hopsworks supports the development of horizontally scalable DL applications in notebooks and the operation of workflows to support those applications, including parallel data processing, model training, and model deployment at scale. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that demonstrates the services and features of the Hopsworks platform, which provide users with the means to build scalable end-to-end ML/DL pipelines for EO data, as well as support for the discovery and search for EO metadata. This paper serves as a demonstration and walkthrough of the stages of building a production-level model that includes data ingestion, data preparation, feature extraction, model training, model serving, and monitoring. To this end, we provide a practical example that demonstrates the aforementioned stages with real-world EO data and includes source code that implements the functionality of the platform. We also perform an experimental evaluation of two frameworks built on top of Hopsworks, namely Maggy and AutoAblation. We show that using Maggy for hyperparameter tuning results in roughly half the wall-clock time required to execute the same number of hyperparameter tuning trials using Spark while providing linear scalability as more workers are added. Furthermore, we demonstrate how AutoAblation facilitates the definition of ablation studies and enables the asynchronous parallel execution of ablation trials.

Sn-Beta Catalyzed Transformations of Sugars—Advances in Catalyst and Applications

Beta zeolite modified with Sn in the framework (Sn-Beta) was synthesized and introduced as a heterogeneous catalyst for Baeyer–Villiger oxidations about twenty years ago. Since then, both syntheses strategies, characterization and understanding as well as applications with the material have developed significantly. Remarkably, Sn-Beta zeolite has been discovered to exhibit unprecedented high catalytic efficiency for the transformation of glucose to fructose (i.e., aldoses to ketoses) and lactic acid derivatives in both aqueous and alcoholic media, which has inspired an extensive interest to develop more facile and scalable syntheses routes and applications for sugars transformations. This review survey the progress made on both syntheses approaches of Sn-Beta and applications of the material within catalyzed transformations of sugar, including bottom-up and top-down syntheses and catalyzed isomerization, dehydration, and fragmentation of sugars.

Selective laser welding in liquid: A strategy for preparation of high-antibacterial activity nanozyme against Staphylococcus aureus

Nanozyme was considered as one of the most promising substitutes for antibiotics, due to the selective catalysis for pathogens. In this work, a high-antibacterial activity SOD-like nanozyme based on hybrid Ag/CeO2 nanocomposite was facilely prepared by using an innovative approach of selective laser welding in liquid. This prepared nanozyme displayed a high antimicrobial effect against Staphylococcus aureus under visible light illumination, the sterilization rate as high as 82.4%, which was 2.93 and 2.99 times higher than those of pure Ag and pure CeO2, respectively. The enhanced antibacterial activity was attributed to the anchoring of Ag nanospheres on the surface of CeO2 nanosheets, which induced the reduction of CeO2 bandgap and boosted the visible light harvesting. Therefore, the charge carriers can be effectively stimulated to produce abundant reactive oxygen species on the Ag/CeO2 nanocomposite via a SOD-like route. This work demonstrated a facile strategy for the preparation of high-antibacterial activity nanozyme, giving it great potential for scalable application in the biomedical and pharmaceutical industry.

Research and Design of Scalable Advanced Application Based on Dual-Core Smart Meter

Abstract The dual-core smart meter based on the embedded operating system adopts a new software and hardware architecture design, and is equipped with software and hardware resources suitable for scalable advanced applications, which can support application software to form a unified large-scale market. Based on the software and hardware platform of the dual-core smart meter, this paper designs and implements application management functions suitable for advanced applications, and the design realizes advanced functions such as load identification and contract power purchase. It verifies the powerful software and hardware platform expansion capabilities of the dual-core smart meter. It has laid a certain technical foundation for supporting the construction of next generation of smart meter application ecological market.

Nanomaterials for Quantum Information Science and Engineering.

Quantum information science and engineering (QISE)-which entails the use of quantum mechanical states for information processing, communications, and sensing-and the area of nanoscience and nanotechnology have dominated condensed matter physics and materials science research in the 21st century. Solid-state devices for QISE have, to this point, predominantly been designed with bulk materials as their constituents. This review considers how nanomaterials (i.e., materials with intrinsic quantum confinement) may offer inherent advantages over conventional materials for QISE. The materials challenges for specific types of qubits, along with how emerging nanomaterials may overcome these challenges, are identified. Challenges for and progress toward nanomaterials-based quantum devices are condidered. The overall aim of the review is to help close the gap between the nanotechnology and quantum information communities and inspire research that will lead to next-generation quantum devices for scalable and practical quantum applications.

Centimeter-Sized Monolayer CVD Graphene with High Power Factor for Scalable Thermoelectric Applications

Centimeter-Sized Monolayer CVD Graphene with High Power Factor for Scalable Thermoelectric Applications

Securely Sharing Randomized Code That Flies

Address space layout randomization was a great role model, being a light-weight defense technique that could prevent early return-oriented programming attacks. Simple yet effective, address space layout randomization was quickly widely adopted. Conversely, today only a trickle of defense techniques arebeing integrated or adopted mainstream. As code reuse attacks have evolved in complexity, defenses have strived to keep up. However, to do so, many have had to take unfavorable tradeoffs like using background threads or protecting only a subset of sensitive code. In reality, these tradeoffs were unavoidable steps necessary to improve the strength of the state of the art. In this article, we present Mardu , an on-demand system-wide runtime re-randomization technique capable of scalable protection of application as well as shared library code that most defenses have forgone. We achieve code sharing with diversification by implementing reactive and scalable rather than continuous or one-time diversification. Enabling code sharing further removes redundant computation like tracking and patching, along with memory overheads required by prior randomization techniques. In its baseline state, the code transformations needed for Mardu security hardening incur a reasonable performance overhead of 5.5% on SPEC and minimal degradation of 4.4% in NGINX, demonstrating its applicability to both compute-intensive and scalable real-world applications. Even when under attack, Mardu only adds from less than 1% to up to 15% depending on application size and complexity.

Carbon dioxide removal potential from decentralised bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and the relevance of operational choices

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) technology is expected to support net-zero targets by supplying low carbon energy while providing carbon dioxide removal (CDR). BECCS is estimated to deliver 20 to 70 MtCO2 annual negative emissions by 2050 in the UK, despite there are currently no BECCS operating facility. This research is modelling and demonstrating the flexibility, scalability and attainable immediate application of BECCS. The CDR potential for two out of three BECCS pathways considered by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios were quantified (i) modular-scale CHP process with post-combustion CCS utilising wheat straw and (ii) hydrogen production in a small-scale gasifier with pre-combustion CCS utilising locally sourced waste wood. Process modelling and lifecycle assessment were used, including a whole supply chain analysis. The investigated BECCS pathways could annually remove between −0.8 and −1.4 tCO2e tbiomass−1 depending on operational decisions. Using all the available wheat straw and waste wood in the UK, a joint CDR capacity for both systems could reach about 23% of the UK's CDR minimum target set for BECCS. Policy frameworks prioritising carbon efficiencies can shape those operational decisions and strongly impact on the overall energy and CDR performance of a BECCS system, but not necessarily maximising the trade-offs between biomass use, energy performance and CDR. A combination of different BECCS pathways will be necessary to reach net-zero targets. Decentralised BECCS deployment could support flexible approaches allowing to maximise positive system trade-offs, enable regional biomass utilisation and provide local energy supply to remote areas.

Heusler‐Based Cylindrical Micro‐ and Nanowires

Wire‐shaped materials are ideal form for rapid, cheap, and scalable production and application. Herein, the most recent results on Heusler‐based cylindrical micro‐ and nanowires are reviewed, emphasizing spintronic, magnetocaloric, and shape memory applications. Herein, how the Heusler alloy's composition can be tuned to achieve a material with repeatable magnetic and mechanical properties is showed. A wide range of possible Heusler compositions allows us to tune the structural transformation temperatures by alloying the original composition with a few percent of metalloid. Wire shape brings additional effect—well‐defined easy axis change due to a structural transformation that enhances the magnetocaloric effect at low‐magnetic fields. The unique wire's shape properties can be downscaled to nanoscale range by electrodeposition. It is showed that such a method allows the production of a highly ordered array of nanowires. As a result, the magnetocaloric effect of an array of nanowires can be one order higher than that obtained by other production methods, where the nanowires are oriented randomly. Finally, some possible applications of shape memory or magnetocaloric actuators and the possibility of implementing high spin polarization for the construction of spintronic devices are showed.

Photoneutralization of charges in GaAs quantum dot based entangled photon emitters

Semiconductor-based emitters of pairwise photonic entanglement are a promising constituent of photonic quantum technologies. They are known for the ability to generate discrete photonic states on-demand with low multiphoton emission, near-unity entanglement fidelity, and high single photon indistinguishability. However, quantum dots typically suffer from luminescence blinking, lowering the efficiency of the source and hampering their scalable application in quantum networks. In this paper, we investigate and adjust the intermittence of the neutral exciton emission in a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dot under two-photon resonant excitation of the neutral biexciton. We investigate the spectral and quantum optical response of the quantum dot emission to an additional wavelength tunable gate laser, revealing blinking caused by the intrinsic Coulomb blockade due to charge capture processes. Our finding demonstrates that the emission quenching can be actively suppressed by controlling the balance of free electrons and holes in the vicinity of the quantum dot and thereby significantly increasing the quantum efficiency by $30%$.

Shape-controlled fabrication of cost-effective, scalable and anti-biofouling hydrogel foams for solar-powered clean water production

• Development of closed-cell hydrogel foams via a controlled foaming − gelation technique. • Demonstration of self-contained solar evaporation and desalination. • Realization of a single-stage water purifier for efficient clean water production. Solar-powered interfacial evaporation has emerged as a sustainable technology for clean water production with a minimized carbon footprint. Fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) steam generators via conventional processing techniques (sol–gel and template-assisted methods) remain one of the main roadblocks toward mass production and scalable applications. In this study, 3D hydrogel foams based on biopolymer composites are developed via a controlled foaming − gelation technique and applied to a monolithic interfacial steam generator. The designed closed-cell structures deliver many important form-factors to the hydrogel foams, such as light-weight, low-cost, low thermal insulation and efficient water diffusion. The hydrogel foam with a maximum height of 3.2 cm attains a high water evaporation rate of 2.12 kg m −2 h −1 and a high cost-effectiveness of 2692 g h −1 $ −1 under one sun. A single-stage water purification system is fabricated based on the high-performing hydrogel foam. Because of its self-floating structure and enhanced passive cooling on open water, the system attains a maximum clean water collection rate of 0.71 L m −2 h −1 under real sky and surpasses a majority of single-stage solar stills. This work demonstrates the rational fabrication of hydrogel foams and combines high-performance solar evaporation with other intriguing properties (i.e., cost-efficient, scalable, anti-biofouling, self-floating and anti-overturning). The system-level design enables facile scale-up of clean water production.

In-situ synthesizing carbon nanotubes on cement to develop self-sensing cementitious composites for smart high-speed rail infrastructures

Self-sensing cementitious composites (SSCCs) with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted extensive attention because of their excellent mechanical and durability properties combined with multifunctional benefits. However, their performance modulation, as well as scalable manufacturing and application, are limited by the uniform dispersion of CNTs inside them. Here, a straightforward approach to in-situ synthesizing CNTs on cement (CNT@Cem) toward alleviating the CNTs’ dispersion issue and enhancing their composite efficiency and effectiveness is explored. Due to the inherently containing silicate and ferrite phases, microscale cement particles act as effective substrate-bound catalysts, facilitating high-yield and strongly anchored CNTs growth. The hierarchically structured CNT@Cem integrates the dual functions of reinforcement and conduction, significantly affecting early-age hydration, mechanical, electrical, and self-sensing properties of the final SSCCs with CNT@Cem. The CNT@Cem structure can promote early-age hydration while slowing the later hydration rate and hindering the strength development of the SSCCs. The addition of CNT@Cem can be effective in tailoring the electrical microstructures to enhance the electrical conductivity and self-sensing sensitivity of the SSCCs. The SSCCs with CNT@Cem achieved a maximum stress sensitivity of 2.87%/MPa with a gauge factor of 748. They demonstrated excellent repeatability and stability, outstanding adaptability to various applied conditions, and fast response and recovery. The developed SSCCs-engineered smart track slab is competent in axle counting and speed detection. It opens up a new territory to develop high-performance and versatile SSCCs-engineered smart components/structures for long-term, wide distribution, and low-cost monitoring of high-speed rail (HSR) infrastructures.

SCALABLE AR FOR BIM ON TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORK SITES

Abstract. A growing number of research works, experiments and applications is investigating the potential at the intersection of augmented reality (AR) and the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. Project management, project communication, collaborative design, maintenance and construction progress documentation, construction site safety, and training are some of the cases that can benefit from blending real and virtual views through mobile devices. In recent years, research also highlighted how mixed reality and building information modeling (BIM) could cooperate to provide effective communication between multiple agents and closer interaction between digital information and the building site. Nevertheless, consolidated applications in these fields are still limited, especially when compared to other areas of AR adoption. This paper presents the development of an AR-based mobile app for exploring telecommunications tower sites and interacting with a related BIM database. The project aims to provide easy-to-use tools to maintain both the physical assets and an up-to-date model. We discuss critical issues in developing a scalable and interoperable application, supporting the feasibility study of similar solutions in the AEC sector.

Technical considerations regarding the modelling and implementation of a Web Dynpro application

Developed by SAP (System Application and Products) concern, the new Dynpro Web technology aims to create scalable business applications that comply with standardized user interface principles. This paper highlights how a Web Dynpro application consisting of several components can be modeled and implemented in the ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) language using a component binding technique based on the concept of MVC (Modell-View-Controller). All these aspects are presented through a case study, developed and implemented on the SAP NetWeaver integration platform version 7.0.

Diamond semiconductor and elastic strain engineering

Diamond, as an ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor, has become a promising candidate for next-generation microelectronics and optoelectronics due to its numerous advantages over conventional semiconductors, including ultrahigh carrier mobility and thermal conductivity, low thermal expansion coefficient, and ultra-high breakdown voltage, etc. Despite these extraordinary properties, diamond also faces various challenges before being practically used in the semiconductor industry. This review begins with a brief summary of previous efforts to model and construct diamond-based high-voltage switching diodes, high-power/high-frequency field-effect transistors, MEMS/NEMS, and devices operating at high temperatures. Following that, we will discuss recent developments to address scalable diamond device applications, emphasizing the synthesis of large-area, high-quality CVD diamond films and difficulties in diamond doping. Lastly, we show potential solutions to modulate diamond’s electronic properties by the “elastic strain engineering” strategy, which sheds light on the future development of diamond-based electronics, photonics and quantum systems.

Microwave-assisted synthesis of NiTe2 photocatalyst as a facile and scalable approach for energy-efficient photocatalysis and detoxification of harmful organic dyes

Microwave-assisted synthesis of NiTe2, a metal dichalcogenide, is reported here as a facile and rapid preparation method for energy-efficient and scalable photocatalysis application and detoxification of water pollution. Synthetic dyes as organic pollutants in water, such as Methylene blue, Congo red, and Methyl orange cause serious health and environmental issues, which are degraded effectively by heterogeneous photocatalysis using NiTe2 as a catalyst. The photons from a UV-source generates excitons within the surface of NiTe2 that can react with O2, H2O, and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) initiator to convert them into reactive superoxide anions (−O2), hydroperoxyl (HOO), and hydroxide radicals (OH) which holds strong oxidizing power to degrade organic dye molecules. The UV irradiation can also perform photolysis in the presence of a hydrogen peroxide initiator within the catalyst system. The 3D-support structure of nickel foam substrate and needlelike rod structure of NiTe2 catalyst provides a high surface area. This 3D solid structure can solve the major issue of catalyst separation after treatment which is a major problem in powder catalysts. Our study demonstrates excellent photocatalytic dye-degradation efficiency within a very short treatment time, can replace other Fenton-based catalysts that produce a large amount of iron sludge, and are difficult to remove.