Study on the design of ZnO/PANI composites and the mechanism of enhanced humidity sensing properties

ZnO/PANI composite humidity sensor was prepared by hydrothermal method. The first principles of density functional theory study the sensing mechanism. The calculation shows that the oxygen vacancy on ZnO surface is beneficial to the adsorption of water molecules. The {0 0 0‾1} crystal plane with the largest lattice oxygen number in ZnO has a strong adsorption capacity for water molecules, which is also conducive to improving the humidity sensitivity. PANI is easy to be combined on {0 1‾1 0} plane of ZnO, and it indirectly promotes the growth of {0 0 0‾1} plane, increasing the adsorption of water molecules and the proportion of H⁺ and H₃O⁺ ions. In addition, the N–H group in ZnO/PANI enhances the H⁺ conduction, which further improves the performance of the sensor. The results concluded that the proportion of lattice oxygen in humidity sensor is an important factor of humidity sensor sensitive detection.     

Dynamic stability of a class of fractional-order nonlinear systems via fixed point theory

In this paper, the problem of the uniform stability for a class of fuzzy fractional-order genetic regulatory networks with random discrete delays, distributed delays, and parameter uncertainties is studied. Although there is a portion of literature on using fixed point theorems to study the stability of fractional neural networks, most of them required the fractional order to be in $\left(\frac{1}{2},1\right)$. However, the case of the fractional-order belonging to $(0,\frac{1}{2})$ has not been discussed. To solve it, this work proposes a novel idea of using fixed point theory to study the stability of fuzzy (0,1) order neural networks, the problem of the uniqueness of the solution of the considered genetic regulatory networks is resolved, and a novel sufficient condition to guarantee the uniform stability of above genetic regulatory networks is also derived. Eventually, an example is given to demonstrate that the obtained result is effective.     

Confined crystallization of polymers within anodic aluminum oxide templates

In this article, a review of recent literature on confined crystallization within nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) templates is presented. For almost all infiltrated polymeric materials, crystal orientation within the nanopores is a function of pore diameter. T_c and T_m usually decrease and are a function of pore size. When no pore interconnection remains, the crystallization occur at large supercoolings in heterogeneity free environments. Hence, the nucleation mechanism changes from heterogeneous to surface or homogeneous nucleation. The crystallization kinetics of infiltrated polymers should be close to first order, since in confined environments nucleation is the determining step of the overall crystallization and Avrami indexes (n) of ～1 (or lower in some cases) should be obtained. Examples are provided where these conditions have been met and first order kinetics (n = 1) were measured as opposed to higher orders (n = 3?4) for the same polymer in the bulk. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2014 , 52, 1179–1194     

Risk averse decision making under catastrophic risk

A nonstandard probabilistic setting for modeling of the risk of catastrophic events is presented. It allows random variables to take on infinitely large negative values with non-zero probability, which correspond to catastrophic consequences unmeasurable in monetary terms, e.g. loss of human lives. Thanks to this extension, the safety-first principle is proved to be consistent with traditional axioms on a preference relation, such as monotonicity, continuity, and risk aversion. Also, a robust preference relation is introduced, and an example of a monotone robust preference relation, sensitive to catastrophic events in the sense of Chichilnisky (2002), is provided. The suggested setting is demonstrated in evaluating nuclear power plant projects when the probability of a catastrophe is itself a random variable.     

An alternative proof of lower bounds for the first eigenvalue on manifolds

Recently, Andrews and Clutterbuck [1] gave a new proof of the optimal lower eigenvalue bound on manifolds via modulus of continuity for solutions of the heat equation. In this short note, we give an alternative proof of Theorem 2 in [1]. More precisely, following Ni's method (Section 6 of [5]), we give an elliptic proof of this theorem.     

Structures of the twisted N = 1 Schrödinger–Neveu–Schwarz algebra

In this paper, we determine the universal central extension, derivation algebra and automorphism group of the twisted N = 1 Schrödinger–Neveu–Schwarz algebra. Furthermore, we generalize these results to the generalized twisted N = 1 Schrödinger–Neveu–Schwarz algebra in the final section.     

Analysis of the mean squared derivative cost function

In this paper, we investigate the mean squared derivative cost functions that arise in various applications such as in motor control, biometrics and optimal transport theory. We provide qualitative properties, explicit analytical formulas and computational algorithms for the cost functions. We also perform numerical simulations to illustrate the analytical results. In addition, as a by‐product of our analysis, we obtain an explicit formula for the inverse of a Wronskian matrix that is of independent interest in linear algebra and differential equations theory. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluation of the quality consistency of powdered poppy capsule extractive by an averagely linear‐quantified fingerprint method in combination with antioxidant activities and two compounds analyses

A novel averagely linear‐quantified fingerprint method was proposed and successfully applied to monitor the quality consistency of alkaloids in powdered poppy capsule extractive. Averagely linear‐quantified fingerprint method provided accurate qualitative and quantitative similarities for chromatographic fingerprints of Chinese herbal medicines. The stability and operability of the averagely linear‐quantified fingerprint method were verified by the parameter r . The average linear qualitative similarity (improved based on conventional qualitative “Similarity”) was used as a qualitative criterion in the averagely linear‐quantified fingerprint method, and the average linear quantitative similarity was introduced as a quantitative one. was able to identify the difference in the content of all the chemical components. In addition, was found to be highly correlated to the contents of two alkaloid compounds (morphine and codeine). A simple flow injection analysis was developed for the determination of antioxidant capacity in Chinese Herbal Medicines, which was based on the scavenging of 2,2‐diphenyl‐1‐picrylhydrazyl radical by antioxidants. The fingerprint–efficacy relationship linking chromatographic fingerprints and antioxidant activities was investigated utilizing orthogonal projection to latent structures method, which provided important pharmacodynamic information for Chinese herbal medicines quality control. In summary, quantitative fingerprinting based on averagely linear‐quantified fingerprint method can be applied for monitoring the quality consistency of Chinese herbal medicines, and the constructed orthogonal projection to latent structures model is particularly suitable for investigating the fingerprint–efficacy relationship.     

Resolvent estimates and smoothing for homogeneous partial differential operators on graded Lie groups

By using commutator methods, we show uniform resolvent estimates and obtain globally smooth operators for self-adjoint injective homogeneous operators H on graded groups, including Rockland operators, sublaplacians, and many others. Left or right invariance is not required. Typically the globally smooth operator has the form T = V|H|^1∕2, where V only depends on the homogeneous structure of the group through Sobolev spaces, the homogeneous dimension and the minimal and maximal dilation weights. For stratified groups improvements are obtained, by using a Hardy-type inequality. Some of the results involve refined estimates in terms of real interpolation spaces and are valid in an abstract setting. Even for the commutative group ?^N some new classes of partial differential operators are treated.