Physics of transparent conductors

Transparent conductors (TCs) are materials, which are characterized by high transmission of light and simultaneously very high electrical DC conductivity. These materials play a crucial role, and made possible numerous applications in the fields of electro-optics, plasmonics, biosensing, medicine, and “green energy”. Modern applications, for example in the field of touchscreen and flexible displays, require that TCs are also mechanically strong and flexible. TC can be broadly classified into two categories: uniform and non-uniform TC. The uniform TC can be viewed as conventional metals (or electron plasmas) with plasma frequency located in the infrared frequency range (e.g. transparent conducting oxides), or ultra-thin metals with large plasma frequency (e.g. graphen). The physics of the nonuniform TC is much more complex, and could involve transmission enhancement due to refraction (including plasmonic), and exotic effects of electron transport, including percolation and fractal effects. This review ties the TC performance to the underlying physical phenomena. We begin with the theoretical basis for studying the various phenomena encountered in TC. Next, we consider the uniform TC, and discuss first the conventional conducting oxides (such as indium tin oxide), reviewing advantages and limitations of these classic uniform electron plasmas. Next, we discuss the potential of single- and multiple-layer graphene as uniform TC. In the part of the paper dealing with non-uniform metallic films, we begin with the review of random metallic networks. The transparency of these networks could be enhanced beyond the classical shading limit by the plasmonic refractive effects. The electrical conduction strongly depends on the network type, and we review first networks made of individual metallic nanowires, where conductivity depends on the inter-wire contact, and the percolation effects. Next, we review the uniform metallic film networks, which are free of the percolation effects and contact problems. In applications that require high-quality electric contact of a TC to an active substrate (such as LED or solar cells), the network performance can be optimized by employing a quasi-fractal structure of the network. We also consider the periodic metallic networks, where active plasmonic refraction leads to the phenomenon of the extraordinary optical transmission. We review the relevant literature on this topic, and demonstrate networks, which take advantage of this strategy (the bio-inspired leaf venation (LV) network, hybrid networks, etc.). Finally, we review “smart” TCs, with an added functionality, such as light interference, metamaterial effects, built-in semiconductors, and their junctions.     

Discovery Through Gossip

We study randomized gossip‐based processes in dynamic networks that are motivated by information discovery in large‐scale distributed networks such as peer‐to‐peer and social networks. A well‐studied problem in peer‐to‐peer networks is resource discovery, where the goal for nodes (hosts with IP addresses) is to discover the IP addresses of all other hosts. Also, some of the recent work on self‐stabilization algorithms for P2P/overlay networks proceed via discovery of the complete network. In social networks, nodes (people) discover new nodes through exchanging contacts with their neighbors (friends). In both cases the discovery of new nodes changes the underlying network — new edges are added to the network — and the process continues in the changed network. Rigorously analyzing such dynamic (stochastic) processes in a continuously changing topology remains a challenging problem with obvious applications. This paper studies and analyzes two natural gossip‐based discovery processes. In the push discovery or triangulation process, each node repeatedly chooses two random neighbors and connects them (i.e., “pushes” their mutual information to each other). In the pull discovery process or the two‐hop walk, each node repeatedly requests or “pulls” a random contact from a random neighbor and connects itself to this two‐hop neighbor. Both processes are lightweight in the sense that the amortized work done per node is constant per round, local, and naturally robust due to the inherent randomized nature of gossip. Our main result is an almost‐tight analysis of the time taken for these two randomized processes to converge. We show that in any undirected n‐node graph both processes take rounds to connect every node to all other nodes with high probability, whereas is a lower bound. We also study the two‐hop walk in directed graphs, and show that it takes time with high probability, and that the worst‐case bound is tight for arbitrary directed graphs, whereas Ω(n²) is a lower bound for strongly connected directed graphs. A key technical challenge that we overcome in our work is the analysis of a randomized process that itself results in a constantly changing network leading to complicated dependencies in every round. We discuss implications of our results and their analysis to discovery problems in P2P networks as well as to evolution in social networks. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 48, 565–587, 2016     

多集群系统中资源监控代理模块的设计与实现

针对单一集群用户提交大量作业时系统响应时间长的问题,提出了一种多集群系统中资源监控的设计方案,该方案主要是对集群中各个子节点所有可用资源的状况进行监控,采集子节点的资源信息,并将收集到的集群节点负载信息传送给作业控制模块,使得作业根据分布在多集群环境中的计算资源负载情况进行作业跨集群调度。此方案可用于商业、高校等计算节点比较多的场所,提高工作效率,此方案已在高性能计算中应用,运行状况稳定。实验结果表明,当用户并提交作业和查询作业状态时,多集群系统响应时间优于单一集群系统响应时间。     

Differentiated service delivery in cooperative IP-based broadcast and mobile telecommunications networks

Email: angelo.centonza{at}brunel.ac.uk Corresponding author. Email: thomas.owens{at}brunel.ac.uk Email: john.cosmas{at}brunel.ac.uk^¶ Email: y.h.song{at}brunel.ac.uk Received on 26 November 2005. Accepted on 20 March 2007. The evolution of wireless systems has led recently to the deploymentof cooperative network infrastructures where networks basedon different technologies cooperate together to offer innovativeservices which the networks individually could not offer. Cooperativenetwork infrastructures are hybrid systems. Examples of hybridsystems are already in use in areas as diverse power systemsand locomotion systems. It is very important to apply efficientsystem management techniques to hybrid systems that produceadvantageous business case scenarios for each participatingsystem and efficient use of the available resources. In thispaper, scenarios are investigated where cooperation betweenan integrated project (IP)-based broadcast network and an IP-basedmobile telecommunications network has the potential to allowservices to be provided to mobile users which would not be economicalto offer over either an IP-based broadcast network or an IP-basedmobile telecommunications network alone. The paper presentsa novel technique for determining which network to use to deliversuch services at a given point in time. The application of thistechnique in appropriate scenarios has the potential to generateadditional income for both the IP-based broadcast network operatorand the IP-based mobile telecommunications network operatorin an infrastructure where the operators cooperate to offerinnovative services. The paper explains the construction ofutility functions for cooperative IP-based broadcast and mobiletelecommunications networks. These utility functions are thenused to provide results that enable the efficiency of the managementof the network to be assessed in terms of the utility volumegenerated by the innovative services provided.     

以史为鉴——化学科普中的人文素养教育

中国古代历史中蕴含着丰富的化学史资源,对这些资源的挖掘、解读,形成化学科普题材,既是化学教育的需要,也是加强思想政治教育背景下课程思政的现实要求。以寒食散为例,探讨中国古代化学史资源所蕴含的人文素养教育价值,认为化学科普中汲取历史资源,不仅增加了科普的趣味性,有利于向公众普及化学知识,还有助于公众树立正确的世界观和价值观。     

Scale-up and Sustainability Evaluation of Biopolymer Production from Citrus Waste Offering Carbon Capture and Utilisation Pathway

Poly(limonene carbonate) (PLC) has been highlighted as an attractive substitute to petroleum derived plastics, due to its utilisation of CO₂ and bio-based limonene as feedstocks, offering an effective carbon capture and utilisation pathway. Our study investigates the techno-economic viability and environmental sustainability of a novel process to produce PLC from citrus waste derived limonene, coupled with an anaerobic digestion process to enable energy cogeneration and waste recovery maximisation. Computational process design was integrated with a life cycle assessment to identify the sustainability improvement opportunities. PLC production was found to be economically viable, assuming sufficient citrus waste is supplied to the process, and environmentally preferable to polystyrene (PS) in various impact categories including climate change. However, it exhibited greater environmental burdens than PS across other impact categories, although the environmental performance could be improved with a waste recovery system, at the cost of a process design shift towards energy generation. Finally, our study quantified the potential contribution of PLC to mitigating the escape of atmospheric CO₂ concentration from the planetary boundary. We emphasise the importance of a holistic approach to process design and highlight the potential impacts of biopolymers, which is instrumental in solving environmental problems facing the plastic industry and building a sustainable circular economy.     

水资源管理研究进展

加强水资源管理是世界各国为提高水资源利用效率和应对水资源危机的重要举措之一,也是我国解决日益增长的水资源需求和水资源供给不足矛盾的关键。 水资源管理研究的领域较广、范围较大、主题较多,主要从国内外水资源管理的模式与制度、研究模型、研究重点领域以及研究热点四方面进行归纳综述,并以黑河流域为例,说明先进的水资源管理对提高水资源利用效率和应对水资源危机的重要性,可为我国探索水资源管理模式,建立适合国情的水资源管理制度提供科学基础。     

基于资源随机中断的反应性多模式项目调度优化

资源中断是项目实施过程中一种常见现象,它会导致项目进度计划的变更并引起额外的成本。本文研究资源随机中断下的项目调度问题,目标是对基准进度计划进行合理的调整,以最小化由此所造成的额外成本。作者首先对研究问题进行界定,随后构建问题的优化模型。针对模型的NP-hard属性,设计禁忌搜索启发式算法。最后以基准列表算法和随机生成算法为参照,在随机生成的标准算例集合上对算法进行测试,得到如下结论:在可接受的计算时间范围内,禁忌搜索获得的满意解质量明显高于其他两种启发式算法;算法的平均计算时间随着项目活动数的增加而增加,随着网络复杂度、资源强度或资源中断次数的增加而减小;满意解的平均目标函数值,随着项目活动数或网络复杂度的增加而增加,随着资源中断次数的增加而减小,与资源强度无明显关系。     

基于电能节约的E-DEA模型及其应用

按照全要素能源效率的概念,重点考虑电能投入约束,构造了基于电能节约的E-DEA模型,其目标函数为极大化产出比例和电能投入比例之差,约束条件中除考虑一般投入量约束外,还同时强调电能投入径向节约和产出径向增加。根据模型最优解,给出了相应的有效、非有效、弱有效、用电规模收益状态的判断准则,以及相应于不同有效性情况下决策单元的改进。以合肥市通用制造业规上企业所属21个行业为研究对象,从第二次经济普查中选择年均资产、从业人员、电力、非电力能源、二氧化碳排量为投入指标,主营业务收入为产出指标,对行业电能利用效率进行实证分析,通过分析潜在电能可节约量和主营业务收入可增加量,明确了各行业改进目标。     

The Kolkata Paise Restaurant problem and resource utilization

We study the dynamics of the “Kolkata Paise Restaurant problem”. The problem is the following: In each period, N agents have to choose between N restaurants. Agents have a common ranking of the restaurants. Restaurants can only serve one customer. When more than one customer arrives at the same restaurant, one customer is chosen at random and is served; the others do not get the service. We first introduce the one-shot versions of the Kolkata Paise Restaurant problem which we call one-shot KPR games. We then study the dynamics of the Kolkata Paise Restaurant problem (which is a repeated game version of any given one shot KPR game) for large N. For statistical analysis, we explore the long time steady state behavior. In many such models with myopic agents we get under-utilization of resources, that is, we get a lower aggregate payoff compared to the social optimum. We study a number of myopic strategies, focusing on the average occupation fraction of restaurants.