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Wind sensors have always played an irreplaceable role in environmental information monitoring and are expected to operate with lower power consumption to extend service lifetime. Here, we propose a breeze wake-up anemometer (B-WA) based on a rolling-bearing triboelectric nanogenerator (RB-TENG) with extremely low static power. The B-WA consists of two RB-TENGs, a self-waking-up module (SWM), a signal processing module (SPM), and a wireless transmission unit. The two RB-TENGs are employed for system activation and wind-speed sensing. Once the ambient wind-speed exceeds 2 m/s, the wake TENG (W-TENG) and the SWM can wake up the system within 0.96 s. At the same time, the SPM starts to calculate the signal frequency from the measured TENG (M-TENG) to monitor the wind speed with a sensitivity of 9.45 Hz/(m/s). After the wind stops, the SWM can switch off the B-WA within 0.52 s to decrease the system energy loss. In quiescent on-duty mode, the operating power of the B-WA is less than 30 nW, which can greatly extend the service lifetime of the B-WA. By integrating triboelectric devices and rolling bearings, this work has realized an ultralow quiescent power and self-waked-up wireless wind-speed monitoring system, which has foreseeable applications in remote weather monitoring, IoT nodes, and so on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: With the rapid development of aquaculture, searching for alternative lipid sources to fish oil has become an important task for the aqua-feed industry. Lard is regarded as a valuable alternative lipid source. Basa fish (Pangasius bocourti) offal oil also has a large annual production and high potential to be used in fish feeds. Evaluation of the efficacy of lard and Basa fish offal oil in fish feeds will provide useful information for their application in aquaculture. Both lard and Basa fish offal oil have high levels of saturated fatty acids and monounsaturated fatty acids. The "n-3 LC-PUFA sparing effects" of saturated fatty acids and monounsaturated fatty acids in fish feeds have been observed in many fish species. The present study was also aimed at validating the "n-3 LC-PUFA sparing effects" of saturated fatty acids and monounsaturated fatty acids in lard and Basa fish offal oil. Moreover, the effects of dietary lard and Basa fish offal oil on fish body composition and muscle quality were also evaluated. Lard (LD) and Basa fish offal oil (BFO) have similar fatty acid profiles, both containing high contents of saturated fatty acids (SFA) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA). The present study aimed to investigate the efficacy of partial or complete replacement of marine fish oil (MFO, herring oil) by LD or BFO in the diets of tiger puffer. The control diet contained 49.1% crude protein and 9.28% crude lipid content including 6% added MFO. In other diets, 1/3, 2/3, and 3/3 of the added MFO was replaced by LD or BFO, respectively. Each diet was fed to triplicate tanks of juvenile fish (initial body weight, 13.88 g). A 46-day feeding trial was conducted in a flow-through seawater system. Each diet was fed to triplicate 200-L rectangular polyethylene tanks, each of which was stocked with 30 fish. Fish were fed to satiation three times a day. The complete replacement of added MFO (replacing 65% of the total crude lipid) had no adverse effects on fish growth performance in terms of survival (>94%), weight gain (360–398%), feed intake (2.37–3.04%), feed conversion ratio (0.84–1.02), and somatic indices. The dietary LD or BFO supplementation also had marginal effects on fish body proximate composition, biochemical parameters, muscle texture, and water-holding ability, as well as the hepatic expression of lipid metabolism-related genes. Partial (2/3) replacement of added MFO by LD or BFO did not significantly reduce the muscle n-3 LC-PUFA content, indicating the n-3 LC-PUFA sparing effects of SFA and MUFA in LD and BFO. In general, dietary LD or BFO reduced the peroxidation level and led to significant changes in the muscle volatile flavor compound profile, which were probably attributed to the change in fatty acid composition. The results of this study evidenced that LD and BFO are good potential lipid sources for tiger puffer feeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an emerging technology to convert environmental high‐entropy energy into electrical energy, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has great demands for further enhancing the service lifetime and output performance in practical applications. Here, an ultra‐robust and high‐performance rotational triboelectric nanogenerator (R‐TENG) by bearing charge pumping is proposed. The R‐TENG composes of a pumping TENG (P‐TENG), an output TENG (O‐TENG), a voltage‐multiplying circuit (VMC), and a buffer capacitor. The P‐TENG is designed with freestanding mode based on a rolling ball bearing, which can also act as the rotating mechanical energy harvester. The output low charge from the P‐TENG is accumulated and pumped to the non‐contact O‐TENG, which can simultaneously realize ultralow mechanical wear and high output performance. The matched instantaneous power of R‐TENG is increased by 32 times under 300 r/min. Furthermore, the transferring charge of R‐TENG can remain 95% during 15 days (6.4 × 106 cycles) continuous operation. This work presents a realizable method to further enhance the durability of TENG, which would facilitate the practical applications of high‐performance TENG in harvesting distributed ambient micro mechanical energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Body area network has attracted extensive attention for its applications in athletics, medical, diagnosis, and rehabilitation training in the next generation personalized health care solutions. Here, a contact‐separation direct current triboelectric nanogenerators (CSDC‐TENGs) based self‐powered wireless body area network (SWBAN) is reported that enables multi‐joint movements monitoring for human motion. The CSDC‐TENG is designed as a flexible active sensor with an internal contact switch, and the flexible substrate makes the TENG‐sensor stick onto skin easily. Due to the internal switch, the CSDC‐TENG could generate a DC current, a large instantaneous output voltage exceeds 700 V, and an instantaneous power can reach 1.076 W, which is more than 23 000 times higher than that of the traditional contact‐separation mode TENG in same size and materials without the switch. By coupling with flexible coil, the fixed high‐frequency radio signals can be modulated and emitted clearly ranging from 6 to 16 MHz, which can be wirelessly received and demodulated through a reader. Moreover, the SWBAN is demonstrated in a real time monitoring system for joints motion. This work has realized the wearable TENG for self‐powered wireless real‐time monitoring of body movements driven by low‐frequency human daily activities, which may promote a tremendous development of intelligent healthcare, wireless sensing system and body area network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: A flexible tribotronic artificial synapse with bioinspired neurosensory behaviour was demonstrated, which establishes an active interaction mechanism with the environment. The device can well exhibit tuneable synaptic behaviours by changing the mechanical input modes, including excitatory postsynaptic current, paired-pulse facilitation, and the hierarchical memorial process. The device has excellent mechanical flexibility that can exhibit stable synaptic functions even under strain conditions with a bending radius of 20 mm after 1000 bending cycles. As key components of artificial afferent nervous systems, synaptic devices can mimic the physiological synaptic behaviors, which have attracted extensive attentions. Here, a flexible tribotronic artificial synapse (TAS) with bioinspired neurosensory behavior is developed. The triboelectric potential generated by the external contact electrification is used as the ion-gel-gate voltage of the organic thin film transistor, which can tune the carriers transport through the migration/accumulation of ions. The TAS successfully demonstrates a series of synaptic behaviors by external stimuli, such as excitatory postsynaptic current, paired-pulse facilitation, and the hierarchical memory process from sensory memory to short-term memory and long-term memory. Moreover, the synaptic behaviors remained stable under the strain condition with a bending radius of 20 mm, and the TAS still exhibits excellent durability after 1000 bending cycles. Finally, Pavlovian conditioning has been successfully mimicked by applying force and vibration as food and bell, respectively. This work demonstrates a bioinspired flexible artificial synapse that will help to facilitate the development of artificial afferent nervous systems, which is great significance to the practical application of artificial limbs, robotics, and bionics in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of the Internet of Things, various electronics play an important role in information interaction, in which the power supply is an urgent problem to be solved. Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is an emerging mechanical energy harvesting technology that can serve as a power source for electronics, which is developing towards high performance, miniaturization and integration. Herein, the advanced micro-nano manufacturing technologies are systematically reviewed for TENGs. First, film preparation such as physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, electrochemical deposition, electrospinning and screen printing for triboelectric layers are introduced and discussed. Then, surface processing, such as soft lithography, laser ablation, inductively coupled plasma and nanoimprint for micro-nano structures on the surface of triboelectric layers are also introduced and discussed. In addition, micro-electromechanical system fabrication for TENG devices such as acoustic and vibration sensors, is introduced, and their current challenges are analyzed. Finally, the challenges of the advanced micro-nano manufacturing technologies for the TENGs are systematically summarized, and further development is prospected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous development of smart ports, the construction of port information systems has become the construction focus of the future development of such ports. However, the existing performance evaluation system for port information systems represents a research gap. It cannot effectively achieve specific improvement in the construction of information systems for port services and capabilities. In this paper, an evaluation index system was forged from the three perspectives of the operating level, management capability, and economic efficiency. As a first step, starting from the current situation of Beibu Gulf Port (Port B) construction, the three dimensions of the evaluation index system were determined using the scheme of literature review, questionnaire research, and fieldwork. Additionally, through adversarial interpretive structural modeling (AISM), it is concluded that the port loading and unloading operation capability and service level are the fundamental factors for measuring the construction performance of the container terminal operation system (CTOS). The results are used as input to construct an analytic network process (ANP) model to obtain the index weights. Finally, the gray clustering method (GCM) is introduced to construct a quantitative evaluation model to quantitatively evaluate the construction performance of the Port B CTOS. The quantitative benefits brought by the construction of the CTOS are finally verified. The scores of the corresponding dimensions of the port before and after the construction of the CTOS system in Beibu Gulf Port are obtained experimentally. The conclusion shows that the construction of CTOS makes the port operating level module improve the most, from 40.023 to 70.733 points; at the same time, it is found that two aspects, i.e., green security and economic benefits, in current construction are directions requiring further work in future port construction. Finally, a visualized quantitative analysis and evaluation method for the performance of smart port construction is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the extensive application of wireless sensing nodes, the demand for sustainable energy in unattended environments is increasing. Here, we report a self-powered and autonomous vibrational wake-up system (SAVWS) based on triboelectric nanogenerators and micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) switches. The energy triboelectric nanogenerator (E-TENG) harvests vibration energy to power the wireless transmitter through a MEMS switch. The signal triboelectric nanogenerator (S-TENG) controls the state of the MEMS switch as a self-powered accelerometer and shows good linearity in the acceleration range of 1–4.5 m/s2 at 30 Hz with a sensitivity of about 14.6 V/(m/s2). When the acceleration increases, the S-TENG turns on the MEMS switch, and the wireless transmitter transmits an alarm signal with the energy from E-TENG, using only 0.64 mJ. Using TENGs simultaneously as an energy source and a sensor, the SAVWS provides a self-powered vibration monitoring solution for unattended environments and shows extensive applications and great promise in smart factories, autonomous driving, and the Internet of Things. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) can directly harvest energy via solid–liquid interface contact electrification, making them very suitable for harvesting raindrop energy and as active rainfall sensors. This technology is promising for realizing a fully self-powered system for autonomous rainfall monitoring combined with energy harvesting/sensing. Here, we report a raindrop energy-powered autonomous rainfall monitoring and wireless transmission system (R-RMS), in which a raindrop-TENG (R-TENG) array simultaneously serves as a raindrop energy harvester and rainfall sensor. At a rainfall intensity of 71 mm/min, the R-TENG array can generate an average short-circuit current, open-circuit voltage, and maximum output power of 15 μA, 1800 V, and 325 μW, respectively. The collected energy can be adjusted to act as a stable 2.5 V direct-current source for the whole system by a power management circuit. Meanwhile, the R-TENG array acts as a rainfall sensor, in which the output signal can be monitored and the measured data are wirelessly transmitted. Under a rainfall intensity of 71 mm/min, the R-RMS can be continuously powered and autonomously transmit rainfall data once every 4 min. This work has paved the way for raindrop energy-powered wireless hyetometers, which have exhibited broad prospects in unattended weather monitoring, field surveys, and the Internet of Things. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In view of the existence of light shadow, branches occlusion, and leaves overlapping conditions in the real natural environment, problems such as slow detection speed, low detection accuracy, high missed detection rate, and poor robustness in plant diseases and pests detection technology arise. Results: Based on YOLOv3-tiny network architecture, to reduce layer-by-layer loss of information during network transmission, and to learn from the idea of inverse-residual block, this study proposes a YOLOv3-tiny-IRB algorithm to optimize its feature extraction network, improve the gradient disappearance phenomenon during network deepening, avoid feature information loss, and realize network multilayer feature multiplexing and fusion. The network is trained by the methods of expanding datasets and multiscale strategies to obtain the optimal weight model. Conclusion: The experimental results show that when the method is tested on the self-built tomato diseases and pests dataset, and while ensuring the detection speed (206 frame rate per second), the mean Average precision (mAP) under three conditions: (a) deep separation, (b) debris occlusion, and (c) leaves overlapping are 98.3, 92.1, and 90.2%, respectively. Compared with the current mainstream object detection methods, the proposed method improves the detection accuracy of tomato diseases and pests under conditions of occlusion and overlapping in real natural environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The delegating computation has become an irreversible trend, together comes the pressing need for fairness and efficiency issues. To solve this problem, we leverage game theory to propose a smart contract-based solution. First, according to the behavioral preferences of the participants, we design an incentive contract to describe the motivation of the participants. Next, to satisfy the fairness of the rational delegating computation, we propose a rational delegating computation protocol based on reputation and smart contract. More specifically, rational participants are to gain the maximum utility and reach the Nash equilibrium in the protocol. Besides, we design a reputation mechanism with a reputation certificate, which measures the reputation from multiple dimensions. The reputation is used to assure the client's trust in the computing party to improve the efficiency of the protocol. Then, we conduct a comprehensive experiment to evaluate the proposed protocol. The simulation and analysis results show that the proposed protocol solves the complex traditional verification problem. We also conduct a feasibility study that involves implementing the contracts in Solidity and running them on the official Ethereum network. Meanwhile, we prove the fairness and correctness of the protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tribotronics has attracted great attention owing to the demonstrated triboelectrification-controlled electronics and established direct modulation mechanism by external mechanical stimuli. Here, a nanoscale triboelectrification-gated transistor has been studied with contact-mode atomic force microscopy and scanning Kevin probe microscopy. The detailed working principle was analyzed at first, in which the nanoscale triboelectrification can tune the carrier transport in the transistor. Then with the manipulated nanoscale triboelectrification, the effects of contact force, scan speed, contact cycles, contact region and charge diffusion on the transistor were investigated, respectively. Moreover, the manipulated nanoscale triboelectrification serving as a rewritable floating gate has demonstrated different modulation effects by an applied tip voltage. This work has realized the nanoscale triboelectric modulation on electronics, which could provide a deep understanding for the theoretical mechanism of tribotronics and may have great applications in nanoscale transistor, micro/nano-electronic circuit and nano-electromechanical system. Though tribotronics, e.g., semiconductor electronics that utilize triboelectricity, is a promising technology, current devices have limited application in micro/nano electronics. Here, the authors report a triboelectrification-gated transistor with triboelectric modulation at the nanoscale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To meet the great need for distributed and sustainable power sources, mechanical energy in the environment is widely used for electricity generation. Based on the coupling effect of triboelectrification and electrostatic induction, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) as an innovative energy technology has advantages of collecting fluctuating amplitude and low-frequency mechanical energy. In this paper, a leaf-shaped TENG has been demonstrated to harvest multiple ambient mechanical energy. By the characterization with different mechanical energy sources, the leaf-shaped TENG has been proven as an effective tool to scavenge wind, vibration, and falling raindrop energy. Furthermore, based on numerous leaf-shaped TENGs, a leaf-shaped TENG tree has been developed, which can be used for continuous collection of environmental mechanical energy at large-scale. This paper has first exhibited a conformal structure for simultaneously harvesting various mechanical energy, which has bright potentials in environmental monitoring, Internet of things, and wireless sensor networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we investigate the effect of sidewall angle, height and space of an air cavity extractor (AC-Extractor) on the polarization-dependent light extraction efficiency (LEE) for AlGaN-based deep-ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (DUV LEDs) using three-dimensional finite difference time-domain method. Compared to the reported inclined sidewall metal reflector (SM-Reflector), DUV LED with AC-Extractor shows better light extraction at any height and inclined angle due to different light extraction mechanisms. The light in SM-Reflector DUV LED is extracted mainly through mirror reflection. However, total internal reflection from the sidewall dominants the contribution to LEE for the AC-Extractor with smaller inclined angle such that the space has little impact, while Fresnel scattering is more important for the AC-Extractor with larger inclined angle and that the additional out-light channel as well as the space play a critical role in enhancing the LEE. And the analysis is further developed into a three-escape-cones analytic model theory. In particular, the AC-Extractor with vertical sidewall is more beneficial to enhance the LEE of DUV LED than that with inclined sidewall, which can be rationally explained based on the three-escape-cones analytic model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the coupling effect of contact electrification and electrostatic induction, the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) as an emerging energy technology can effectively harvest mechanical energy from the ambient environment. However, due to its inherent property of large impedance, the TENG shows high voltage, low current and limited output power, which cannot satisfy the stable power supply requirements of conventional electronics. As the interface unit between the TENG and load devices, the power management circuit can perform significant functions of voltage and impedance conversion for efficient energy supply and storage. Here, a review of the recent progress of switching power management for TENGs is introduced. Firstly, the fundamentals of the TENG are briefly introduced. Secondly, according to the switch types, the existing power management methods are summarized and divided into four categories: travel switch, voltage trigger switch, transistor switch of discrete components and integrated circuit switch. The switch structure and power management principle of each type are reviewed in detail. Finally, the advantages and drawbacks of various switching power management circuits for TENGs are systematically summarized, and the challenges and development of further research are prospected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wearable tactile sensors have attracted great attention in the fields of intelligent robots, healthcare monitors and human-machine interactions. To create active tactile sensors that can directly generate electrical signals in response to stimuli from the surrounding environment is of great significance. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have the advantages of high sensitivity, fast response speed and low cost that can convert any type of mechanical motion in the surrounding environment into electrical signals, which provides an effective strategy to design the self-powered active tactile sensors. Here, an overview of the development in TENGs as tactile stimulators for multifunctional sensing and artificial synapses is systematically introduced. Firstly, the applications of TENGs as tactile stimulators in pressure, temperature, proximity sensing, and object recognition are introduced in detail. Then, the research progress of TENGs as tactile stimulators for artificial synapses is emphatically introduced, which is mainly reflected in the electrolyte-gate synaptic transistors, optoelectronic synaptic transistors, floating-gate synaptic transistors, reduced graphene oxides-based artificial synapse, and integrated circuit-based artificial synapse and nervous systems. Finally, the challenges of TENGs as tactile stimulators for multifunctional sensing and artificial synapses in practical applications are summarized, and the future development prospects are expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic fruit detection is a very important benefit of harvesting robots. However, complicated environment conditions, such as illumination variation, branch, and leaf occlusion as well as tomato overlap, have made fruit detection very challenging. In this study, an improved tomato detection model called YOLO-Tomato is proposed for dealing with these problems, based on YOLOv3. A dense architecture is incorporated into YOLOv3 to facilitate the reuse of features and help to learn a more compact and accurate model. Moreover, the model replaces the traditional rectangular bounding box (R-Bbox) with a circular bounding box (C-Bbox) for tomato localization. The new bounding boxes can then match the tomatoes more precisely, and thus improve the Intersection-over-Union (IoU) calculation for the Non-Maximum Suppression (NMS). They also reduce prediction coordinates. An ablation study demonstrated the efficacy of these modifications. The YOLO-Tomato was compared to several state-of-the-art detection methods and it had the best detection performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An algorithm was proposed for automatic tomato detection in regular color images to reduce the influence of illumination and occlusion. In this method, the Histograms of Oriented Gradients (HOG) descriptor was used to train a Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. A coarse-to-fine scanning method was developed to detect tomatoes, followed by a proposed False Color Removal (FCR) method to remove the false-positive detections. Non-Maximum Suppression (NMS) was used to merge the overlapped results. Compared with other methods, the proposed algorithm showed substantial improvement in tomato detection. The results of tomato detection in the test images showed that the recall, precision, and F1 score of the proposed method were 90.00%, 94.41 and 92.15%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]