From an Organometallic Monolayer to an Organic Monolayer Covered by Metal Nanoislands: A Simple Thermal Protocol for the Fabrication of the Top Contact Electrode in Molecular Electronic Devices

In this contribution, a novel method for practical uses in the fabrication of the top contact electrode in a metal/organic monolayer/metal device is presented. The procedure involves the thermally induced decomposition of an organometallic compound, abbreviated as the TIDOC method. Monolayers incorporating the metal organic compounds (MOCs) [[4‐{(4‐carboxy)ethynyl}phenyl]ethynyl]‐(triphenylphosphine)‐gold, 1, or [1‐isocyano‐4‐methoxybenzene]‐[4‐amino‐phenylethynyl]‐gold, 2, were annealed at moderate temperatures (1: 150 °C for 2h and 2: 100 °C for 2 h), resulting in cleavage of the Au‐P or Au‐C bond and reduction of Au(I) to Au(0) as metallic gold nanoparticles (GNPs). These particles are distributed on the surface of the film resulting in formation of metal/molecule/GNP sandwich structures. Electrical properties of these nascent devices were determined by recording I–V curves with a conductive‐AFM. The I–V curves collected from these metal/organic monolayer/GNPs sandwich structures are typical of metal‐molecule‐metal junctions, with no low resistance traces characteristic of metallic short circuits observed over a wide range of set‐point forces. The TIDOC method is therefore an effective procedure for the fabrication of molecular junctions for the emerging area of molecular electronics.     

Graphene Field Effect Transistors with Mica as Gate Dielectric Layers

Chemical vapor deposited monolayer graphene is transferred onto atomically flat and ultra‐thin muscovite mica to study the transport characteristics of graphene with a test structure of mica‐based graphene field effect transistor (GFET). The transfer curve of the 24 nm mica‐based GFET shows an effective carrier mobility of 2748 cm²/Vs and a transconductance of 3.36 μS, a factor of 2 and 7 larger than those values obtained from 40 nm SiO₂ based GFET, respectively. The results demonstrate that mica is an excellent gate dielectric material due to its high dielectric constant, high dielectric strength, and atomically flat surface.     

低压配电系统选择性保护的探讨

阐述了断路器选择性保护的概念和选择性保护的基本条件和具体条件。分析了典型配电系统中各种配电电器之间保护特性的选择性配合以及断路器与电动机过电流保护特性的配合。     

High power and stable P-doped yolk-shell structured Si@C anode simultaneously enhancing conductivity and Li+ diffusion kinetics

Silicon is a low price and high capacity ancxje material for lithium-ion batteries.The yolk-shell structure can effectively accommodate Si expansion to improve stability.However,the limited rate performance of Si anodes can't meet people's growing demand for high power density.Herein,the phosphorus-doped yolk-shell Si@C materials(P-doped Si@C)were prepared through carbon coating on P-doped Si/SiO_xmatrix to obtain high power and stable devices.Therefore,the as-prepared P-doped Si@C electrodes delivered a rapid increase in Coulombic efficiency from 74.4%to 99.6%after only 6 cycles,high capacity retention of-95%over 800 cycles at 4 A·g^-1,and great rate capability(510 mAh·g^-1at 35 A·g^-1).As a result,P-doped Si@C anodes paired with commercial activated carbon and LiFePO₄cathode to assemble lithium-ion capacitor(high power density of?61,080 W·kg^-1at 20 A·g^-1)and lithium-ion full cell(good rate performance with 68.3 mAh·g^-1at 5 C),respectively.This work can provide an effective way tofurther improve power density and stability for energy storage devices.     

Supplier evaluation and selection via Taguchi loss functions and an AHP

The purchasing function directly affects the competitive ability of a firm. Purchasing managers need to periodically evaluate supplier performance in order to retain those suppliers who meet their requirements. The importance of incorporating multiple attributes such as quality, on-time delivery, price and service, into vendor evaluation are well established in the literature. This report provides a more accurate and easier method for quantifying the supplier’s attributes to quality-loss using a Taguchi loss function, and these quality losses are also transferred into a variable for decision-making by an analytical hierarchy process (AHP). An example for supplier evaluation and selection is also presented to demonstrate the functional application of the model.     

Impact of employees’ demographic characteristics on the awareness and compliance of information security policy in organizations

To protect consumer information, many countries have begun enforcing the Personal Data Protection Act. Organizations are required to comply with this Act, failure of which may result in hefty penalties. To ensure compliance, some organizations have introduced their own information security policy to protect consumer information. A review of the literature shows that many employees are either unaware of the policy or tend to ignore it, which increases the risk of non-compliance. To help organizations manage compliance among their employees, in this study, we used demographic factors to develop profiles of employees’ policy awareness and their intention to comply. By having an understanding of employee profiles, effective and targeted strategies can be devised to educate employees accordingly. Our data from 607 respondents show that age, working industry and education levels have significant effects on information security policy awareness and compliance.     

The Influence of Crosslink Chemicals on the Mechanical Strength and Water Absorption of Rice Straw-Based Green Composites

The present work reports the influence of crosslink chemicals (vinyltrimethoxylsilane, dicumyl peroxide, and dibutyl dilaurate) on the mechanical strength and water absorption of the rice straw/high density polyethylene bio-composites. As revealed by the Fourier transform infrared spectra, the surface interaction between the fibers and polymer was improved through the use of vinyltrimethoxylsilane (coupling agent). By properly regulating the dicumyl peroxide (radical initiator) and dibutyl dilaurate (catalyst), the surface interaction was further enhanced, and thus the tensile and flexural strength. These observations were validated by the reduction in the water absorption of the bio-composites as well as the fracture surface examination.     

Effect of lesion morphology on microwave signature in 2-D ultra-wideband breast imaging

This paper studies the possibility of distinguishing between benign and malignant masses by exploiting the morphology-dependent temporal and spectral characteristics of their microwave backscatter response in ultra-wideband breast cancer detection. The spiculated border profiles of 2-D breast masses are generated by modifying the baseline elliptical rings based upon the irregularity of their peripheries. Furthermore, the single- and multilayer lesion models are used to characterize a distinct mass region followed by a sharp transition to background, and a blurred mass border exhibiting a gradual transition to background, respectively. Subsequently, the complex natural resonances (CNRs) of the backscatter microwave signature can be derived from the late-time target response and reveal diagnostically useful information. The fractional sequence CLEAN algorithm is proposed to estimate the lesions' delay intervals and identify the late-time responses. Finally, it is shown through numerical examples that the locations of dominant CNRs are dependent on the lesion morphologies, where 2-D computational breast phantoms with single and multiple lesions are investigated. The analysis is of potential use for discrimination between benign and malignant lesions, where the former usually possesses a better-defined, more compact shape as opposed to the latter.     

Cytocompatibility,bioactivity and mechanical strength of calcium phosphate cement reinforced with multi-walled carbon nanotubes and bovine serum albumin

This paper reports on the in vitro cytotoxicity, bioactivity behaviour and mechanical properties of novel injectable calcium phosphate cement filled with hydroxylated multi-walled carbon nanotubes and bovine serum albumin (CPC/MWCNT-OH/BSA). To predict the in vitro bioactivity of the calcium phosphate composites, we investigated apatite formation on CPC/MWCNT-OH/BSA composites after soaking in simulated body fluid (SBF) for up to 28 days. Compressive strength tests, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and cell culture experiments with human CCD-18Co fibroblasts cell lines were performed to evaluate the effect of SBF pre-treatment on the mechanical, structural and biological properties of the CPC/MWCNT-OH/BSA composites. Although apatite formation increased significantly with SBF immersion period, the results showed that all soaked CPC/MWCNT-OH/BSA composites exhibited up to 2.5 times lower compressive strength (13–20 MPa), which were however higher than values reported for the strength of trabecular bone (2–12 MPa). Cell culture experiments showed that low concentrations (6.25 and 12.5 μg/ml) of bio-mineralised CPC/MWCNT-OH/BSA composites led to cell proliferative rather than cytotoxic effects on fibroblasts, evidenced by high cell viabilities (104–113%). The novel CPC/MWCNT-OH/BSA composites presented in this study showed favourable cytocompatible and bioactive behaviour along with high compressive strength (13–32 MPa) and are therefore considered as an attractive bone filling material.     

Comparative evaluation of palm oil color measurement using a prototype palm oil colorimeter

The color of refined palm oil and palm oil products is conventionally measured using the manually operated Lovibond^® Tintometer. In the present study, one manual/visual and three automatic colorimeters for the measurement of vegetable oil color were used for color measurements of refined palm oil. All colorimeters used were commercially available instruments except for an automatic palm oil colorimeter developed specifically for the measurement of palm oil color. The color values obtained from all four instruments were compared using the visually obtained readings as reference values. Results showed that all three automatic instruments gave correlation coefficients of greater than 0.9300 for red color measurements. In addition, the Student t-test showed no difference between the analysis of red color using the visual method and the palm oil colorimeter. This investigation concludes that, although it is extremely difficult to reduce the lack of precision in color measurement of palm oil, a properly designed and calibrated automatic instrument may still be the better choice because reproducibility and repeatability are required in all standard test methods. The palm oil colorimeter offers a ready and relatively inexpensive solution to the problem of color matches based on visual observations.