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Three FeNiCrMoSiC laser cladding coatings with different Ni content were deposited on AISI 4130 substrate. The electrochemical corrosion behavior of three FeNiCrMoSiC coatings in 0.5 mol/L HCl solution was investigated by the polarization curve and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurement. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Mott-Schottky tests were employed to evaluate the passive film on the coating surface to investigate the passivation stability mechanism of the coating in hydrochloric acid. Potentiodynamic polarization results show that the FeNiCrMoSiC coatings shown superior corrosion resistance than the AISI 4130 substrate, demonstrated by lower corrosion current density and higher corrosion potential. With the increase of Ni concentration, the content of austenite γ-Fe phase increased, whilst the volume of ferrite α-Fe phase decreased, and the corrosion resistance of FeNiCrMoSiC coatings also increased. The main reason for the excellent corrosion resistance of the coating is the barrier effect of bilayer oxide passive film, which is difficult to dissolve in acid and can effectively slow down the penetration of corrosive ions in hydrochloric acid solution on the coating surface.

Intestinal barrier injuries are common in uremia, which aggravates uremia. The goal of this study is to learn moreabout how electroacupuncture regulates gastrointestinal function, as well as to identify the importance of microglia in electroacupuncture regulation and the cannabinoid receptor signaling pathway in controlling the activity of intestinal glial cells. The mice were arbitrarily assigned to four groups: control, CKD, electroacupuncture stimulation, or AM251 (CB1 receptor antagonist). The mice model of uremia was established by adenine gavage. Western blotting revealed the development of tight junction proteins ZO-1, cannabinoid 1 receptor, glial specific GFAP, occludin, S100 β, claudin-1, and JNK. GFAP and CB1R protein expression and co-localization of the intestinal glial cells were observed by double-labeled fluorescence. The expression of cannabinoid 1 receptor CB1R in the intestinal glial cells was increased after electroacupuncture. The expression of tight junction protein, GFAP, S100 β, and CB1R protein was up-regulated after electroacupuncture, and the dysfunction of the intestinal barrier in uremia was corrected. Nevertheless, AM251, a CB1R antagonist, reversed the effect of electroacupuncture. Electroacupuncture can protect the intestinal barrier through the intestinal glial cell CB1R, and the effect is achieved by inhibiting the JNK pathway.

When seeking for satisfactory metacomposites with negative permittivity behavior, an important factor which should be taken into consideration is how to realize a weakly negative permittivity (less than 100). A novel strategy has been proposed accordingly to prepare ternary multiwalled carbon nanotubes/titanium nitride/copper calcium titanate (MWCNT/TiN/CCTO) composites by a facile sintering method in an inert atmosphere. The negative permittivity was observed after the TiN-MWCNT network was constructed among the composites. TiN provided sufficient free electrons and MWCNT were regarded as transporter bridge. Under the synergistic effect of TiN and MWCNT, the negative permittivity decreased by several orders of magnitude owing to the dilution of overall electron density in the resulting composites. Exceptionally, when the permittivity switched from positive to negative along with a resonance, a Lorentz-like negative permittivity was observed in low frequency region. Meanwhile, the Drude-like negative permittivity derived from plasma oscillation was also observed in the higher frequency region. Further investigation confirmed that the permittivity was closely related to the reactance. The positive-negative reactance transition was consistent with the negative-positive permittivity transition, and the epsilon-near-zero was achieved near the zero-crossing point of permittivity. Moreover, the influence of different sintering atmospheres (nitrogen and argon) on the negative permittivity behavior was also explored. This work provides an effective approach for the realization of weakly negative permittivity, and presents, to our knowledge, the first investigation into the influence of sintering atmosphere on negative permittivity.

A novel time-span input neural network was developed to accurately predict the trend of the main steam temperature of a 750-t/d waste incineration boiler. Its historical operating data were used to retrieve sensitive parameters for the boiler output steam temperature by correlation analysis. Then, the 15 most sensitive parameters with specified time spans were selected as neural network inputs. An external testing set was introduced to objectively evaluate the neural network prediction capability. The results show that, compared with the traditional prediction method, the time-span input framework model can achieve better prediction performance and has a greater capability for generalization. The maximum average prediction error can be controlled below 0.2 °C and 1.5 °C in the next 60 s and 5 min, respectively. In addition, setting a reasonable terminal training threshold can effectively avoid overfitting. An importance analysis of the parameters indicates that the main steam temperature and the average temperature around the high-temperature superheater are the two most important variables of the input parameters; the former affects the overall prediction and the latter affects the long-term prediction performance.

Paired immunoglobulin-like receptor B (PirB) has been identified as a receptor for myelin-associated inhibitory proteins (MAIs), which plays a vital role in axonal regeneration, synaptic plasticity, and neuronal survival after stroke. In our previous study, a transactivator of transcription-PirB extracellular peptide (TAT-PEP) was generated, which can block the interactions between MAIs and PirB. We found that TAT-PEP treatment enhanced axonal regeneration, CST projection, and improved long-term neurobehavioral functional recovery after stroke through its effects on PirB-mediated downstream signaling molecules. However, the impact of TAT-PEP on cognitive function recovery and neuronal survival also needs to explore. Here, we investigated thatpirbRNAi alleviated neuronal injury by inhibiting PirB expression after exposure to oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) in vitro. Moreover, TAT-PEP treatment attenuated brain infarct volume and promoted neurobehavioral function and cognitive function recovery. This study further found TAT-PEP exerted neuroprotection by alleviating neuronal degeneration and apoptosis after ischemic reperfusion injury. The study also showed that TAT-PEP enhanced neuronal survival and reduced the release of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)in vitro. Furthermore, the results indicated TAT-PEP decreased malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, increased superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, and alleviated reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation of neurons exposed to OGD injury. The possible mechanism was TAT-PEP could help neuronal mitochondria damage and affect the expression of cleaved Caspase3, Bax, and Bcl-2. Our findings suggest that PirB overexpression in neurons after suffering ischemic reperfusion injury-induced neuronal mitochondria damage, oxidative stress, and apoptosis. This study also indicated that TAT-PEP might represent a highly productive neuroprotective agent displaying therapeutic potential for stroke by alleviating neuronal oxidative stress, mitochondria damage, degeneration, and apoptosis against ischemic stroke.

Following systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), the brain is one of the most sensitive organs vulnerable to an external stressor. According to our previous study, ketamine had a protective effect on alleviating SIRS-associated neuronal necroptosis and cecal epithelial cell necroptosis by inhibiting the RIP1-RIP3-MLKL pathway. In this study, we further provided valid evidence that ketamine could safeguard the integrity of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), modulate microglia over-activation, and prevent neural network damage, resulting in relieving cerebral edema and improving system symptoms significantly. Simultaneously, cecum damage was partly reversed by ketamine intervention, which was attributed to a decrease in circulating high mobility group protein 1 (HMGB1). Interestingly, the result showed less cecum injury and relieved BBB disturbance in Rip3-/- mice. Furthermore, circulating HMGB1 content between Rip3-/- mice and mice with ketamine intervention significantly decreased. Moreover, anti-HMGB1 neutralizing antibody identically reversed BBB damage, indicating that cecum-promoted HMGB1 releases extravagated SIRS and BBB leakage. In addition, we clarified that cecectomy reduced serum HMGB1 release level and alleviated BBB damage and microglial activation. Altogether, our work shed light on the new view about the pathogenesis of SIRS, establishing the connection between cecum damage and BBB damage. Besides, we identified ketamine as a candidate to protect the brain from damage like BBB leakage and microglia over-activation, which attributed to the effect on alleviating cecum damage and decreasing circulation HMGB1 release. Our results provided a new theoretical view and therapeutic target for the application of ketamine in SIRS.

With the rapid growth of the world’s population, the shortage of freshwater resources becomes increasingly serious. Farmland irrigation would not survive without fresh water which comes from river nearby. The low irrigation efficiency of the existing irrigation system needs to be tackled for efficient and effective usage of freshwater with low-cost. It is recognised that the water-saving irrigation technologies, such as the drip irrigation, sprinkler irrigation, micro-irrigation, furrow irrigation in horizontal direction, plastic film mulching, ditch irrigation technology, etc. should be strongly promoted in order to develop water-saving agriculture. However all these measures require cutting-edge technologies and heavy investment, which poses a big problem particularly for the developing countries. On the other hand, if water and nutrients can be applied directly to the crop at root level, the positive effects on yield and water savings can be achieved, thereby increasing the irrigation performance. The water-yield relationship has been investigated using different methods of limited water applications and programs. Therefore, designing and fabricating technological irrigation system of low cost with maximising yield that can reasonably use water for agriculture is an urgent issue to today’s world. The intelligent irrigation system provides a potential solution to solve the water shortage problems. In this study, an intelligent water-saving irrigation system is designed using Solidworks and some parts of the system are fabricated using a home-made fused deposition modelling (FDM) 3D Printer. The intelligent irrigation for different plants is successfully achieved and the irrigation efficiency is significantly improved. The employment of the home-made 3D printer not only substantially reduces the manufacture costs, but also makes it possible to fabricate any “ad hoc” irrigation system.

Herein, N,P-rich carbon/carbon/Co

CFD modelling and simulation is an effective means of optimizing the design and operation of moving grate waste incinerators. Conventional approach models the grate combustion and the furnace combustion separately by using an in-bed/over-bed coupling procedure. In this paper, a comprehensive two-fluid reacting model that integrates the gas-solid grate incineration and the gas turbulent combustion in one scheme is developed for industrial incinerators. Realistic grate geometry and direct simultaneous coupling of the fuel bed and the freeboard gas phase are realized. According to different treatments of the solid phase, the whole incinerator is divided into three regions, namely the packed bed region, the fall region and the furnace region. The kinetic theory of granular flow (KTGF) is introduced to describe the rheological properties of waste particles, and the Ergun model is used for the gas-solid drag. Thermal conversion of wastes is characterized by the heterogeneous reactions of moisture evaporation, devolatilization, char-O2 combustion and the homogeneous reactions of hydrocarbons combustion. Distributions of temperatures and gas species are predicted and validated by measurements. Particle properties are calculated to reveal the grate incineration characteristics. Effects of waste throughput on the incineration are also investigated. Overall, the present model provides a new methodology of in-bed and over-bed integration for the moving grate incinerator simulation.

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is an important barrier that separates brain tissue from peripheral blood. The permeability of the BBB can be destroyed by external harmful factors, such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which contributes to neuroinflammation and central nervous system diseases. The present study aims to investigate the protective effects of Omarigliptin against LPS-induced neuroinflammation and the underlying mechanism using a series of both in vivo and in vitro experiments. A neuroinflammation model was established by intraperitoneal injection of LPS into mice. We found that administration of Omarigliptin reduced LPS-induced inflammatory responses by inhibiting the expressions of interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). Importantly, we found that Omarigliptin protected the integrity of the BBB against LPS by increasing the expression of the tight junction proteins claudin-1 and claudin-5. Our results also demonstrate that Omarigliptin reduced LPS-induced increase in expressions of matrix matalloproteinases-2 (MMP-2) and matrix matalloproteinases-9 (MMP-9) at both the mRNA and protein levels. Notably, Omarigliptin showed a powerful beneficial effect against LPS-induced cell damage in bEnd.3 brain endothelial cells by reducing the release of high mobility group box chromosomal protein 1 (HMGB-1). Consistently, Omarigliptin ameliorated LPS-induced exacerbation of endothelial permeability by increasing the expressions of claudin-1 and claudin-5 and reducing the expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9. Mechanistically, Omarigliptin inhibited the activation of the toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)/myeloid differentiation factor 88/nuclear factor κB (TLR4/Myd88/NF-κB) signaling pathway. On the basis of these findings, we concluded that Omarigliptin might mitigate LPS-induced neuroinflammation and dysfunction of the integrity of the blood-brain barrier.

Interfacial evaporation is one of the most promising technologies for harvesting solar energy to generate steam. Here, we report a solar interfacial evaporator with excellent self-cleaning property via a well-designed artificial channel array in the raw wood substrate. This device shows high light absorption nearly 90% and high solar-to-vapor conversion efficiency of ~88.2% of pure water under one sun irradiation. In addition, due to the existence of two different channels on the device surface: man-made millimetre-sized cutting channels and micro-channels formed by natural growth, the deposition of salt was reduced and its long-term stability in the NaCl solution (over 80 h of continuous operation) was increased. Based on the above conditions, the PCW-7 × 7 still maintains its efficiency at about 80.0% and 73.4% at 1 kW m-2 irradiation in the different simulated seawater with different salinities (3.5 and 20 wt%).

The evaluation of probabilistic forecasts plays a central role both in the interpretation and in the use of forecast systems and their development. Probabilistic scores (scoring rules) provide statistical measures to assess the quality of probabilistic forecasts. Often, many probabilistic forecast systems are available while evaluations of their performance are not standardized, with different scoring rules being used to measure different aspects of forecast performance. Even when the discussion is restricted to strictly proper scoring rules, there remains considerable variability between them; indeed strictly proper scoring rules need not rank competing forecast systems in the same order when none of these systems are perfect. The locality property is explored to further distinguish scoring rules. The nonlocal strictly proper scoring rules considered are shown to have a property that can produce “unfortunate” evaluations, particularly the fact that the continuous rank probability score prefers the outcome close to the median of the forecast distribution regardless of the probability mass assigned to the value at/near the median raises concern to its use. The only local strictly proper scoring rule, the logarithmic score, has direct interpretations in terms of probabilities and bits of information. The nonlocal strictly proper scoring rules, on the other hand, lack meaningful direct interpretation for decision support. The logarithmic score is also shown to be invariant under smooth transformation of the forecast variable, while the nonlocal strictly proper scoring rules considered may, however, change their preferences due to the transformation. It is therefore suggested that the logarithmic score always be included in the evaluation of probabilistic forecasts.

The diffusion coatings were deposited on commercially pure Ti and Ti-6Al-4V alloy at up to 1000 &deg, C for up to 10 h using the pack cementation method. The pack powders consisted of 4 wt% Al (Al reservoir) and 4 wt% NH4Cl (activator) which were balanced with Al2O3 (inert filler). The growth kinetics of coatings were gravimetrically measured by a high precision balance. The aluminised specimens were characterised by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). At the early stages of deposition, a TiO2 (rutile) scale, other than aluminide coating, was developed on both materials at &lt, 900 &deg, C. As the experimental temperature arose above 900 &deg, C, the rutile layer became unstable and reduced to the low oxidation state of Ti oxides. When the temperature increased to 1000 &deg, C, the TiO2 scale dissociated almost completely and the aluminide coating began to develop. After a triple-layered coating was generated, the coating growth was governed by the outward migration of Ti species from the substrates and obeyed the parabolic law. The coating formed consisted of an outer layer of Al3Ti, a mid-layer of Al2Ti and an inner layer of AlTi. The outer layer of Al3Ti dominated the thickness of the aluminide coating.

CFD-based simulation models of large-scale moving grate combustor for biomass and municipal solid waste are not well established. Although a 3D transient two-fluid model provides dynamic coupling between the fuel bed and the freeboard, simulation of a whole incinerator is extremely computational intensive and difficult for industrial applications. In this paper, an efficient computational method is proposed where a 2D bed model is combined with a 3D steady furnace model. In the new approach, the bed model includes a transient two-fluid simulation using realistic grate geometry cut by the incinerator throat, which includes a dynamic coupling of heat and mass transfers between the fuel bed and the lower combustion chamber. The simulated bedtop profiles are then used as inlet conditions to run a 3D steady simulation of turbulent gas combustion for the whole furnace. The simulation results are validated with our previous 3D transient full-incinerator results (Xia et al., 2020) [1] and on-site measurement data. In addition, effects of particle size, waste throughput, and residence time on the bed incineration performance are investigated. Overall, the current computational method highly promotes the efficiency of modelling industrial moving grate combustors.

Polyaniline/cerium dioxide (PANI/CeO2) nanocomposite (NPs) was synthesized by in situ polymerization of aniline in the presence of CeO2 NPs. Various analytical facilities, i.e., powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), were utilized to characterize the synthesized CeO2 and PANI/CeO2 NPs. The coatings prepared from the synthesized PANI/CeO2 NPs exhibited excellent corrosion resistance that was superior to epoxy coatings added with PANI in NaCl solution. The exceptional improvement of corrosion protection performance of the PANI/CeO2 /epoxy coatings is associated with the synergetic protection of the enhancement of the protective barrier due to the role of CeO2 NPs and PANI against the diffusion of aggressive ions (e.g., Cl−) and the improvement of self-healing protection attributed to the redox behavior of PANI. Thus, the hybrid PANI/CeO2 NPs are considered as the best route to enhance the protection performance of the epoxy coatings on carbon steel.

Simulation models are widely employed to make probability forecasts of future conditions on seasonal to annual lead times. Added value in such forecasts is reflected in the information they add, either to purely empirical statistical models or to simpler simulation models. An evaluation of seasonal probability forecasts from the Development of a European Multimodel Ensemble system for seasonal to inTERannual prediction (DEMETER) and ENSEMBLES multi-model ensemble experiments is presented. Two particular regions are considered: Nino3.4 in the Pacific and the Main Development Region in the Atlantic; these regions were chosen before any spatial distribution of skill was examined. The ENSEMBLES models are found to have skill against the climatological distribution on seasonal time-scales. For models in ENSEMBLES that have a clearly defined predecessor model in DEMETER, the improvement from DEMETER to ENSEMBLES is discussed. Due to the long lead times of the forecasts and the evolution of observation technology, the forecast-outcome archive for seasonal forecast evaluation is small; arguably, evaluation data for seasonal forecasting will always be precious. Issues of information contamination from in-sample evaluation are discussed and impacts (both positive and negative) of variations in cross-validation protocol are demonstrated. Other difficulties due to the small forecast-outcome archive are identified. The claim that the multi-model ensemble provides a ‘better’ probability forecast than the best single model is examined and challenged. Significant forecast information beyond the climatological distribution is also demonstrated in a persistence probability forecast. The ENSEMBLES probability forecasts add significantly more information to empirical probability forecasts on seasonal time-scales than on decadal scales. Current operational forecasts might be enhanced by melding information from both simulation models and empirical models. Simulation models based on physical principles are sometimes expected, in principle, to outperform empirical models; direct comparison of their forecast skill provides information on progress toward that goal.

State estimation lies at the heart of many meteorological tasks. Pseudo-orbit-based data assimilation provides an attractive alternative approach to data assimilation in nonlinear systems such as weather forecasting models. In the perfect model scenario, noisy observations prevent a precise estimate of the current state. In this setting, ensemble Kalman filter approaches are hampered by their foundational assumptions of dynamical linearity, while variational approaches may fail in practice owing to local minima in their cost function. The pseudo-orbit data assimilation approach improves state estimation by enhancing the balance between the information derived from the dynamic equations and that derived from the observations. The potential use of this approach for numerical weather prediction is explored in the perfect model scenario within two deterministic chaotic systems: the two-dimensional Ikeda map and 18-dimensional Lorenz96 flow. Empirical results demonstrate improved performance over that of the two most common traditional approaches of data assimilation (ensemble Kalman filter and four-dimensional variational assimilation).

Berliner (Likelihood and Bayesian prediction for chaotic systems, J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 1991) identified a number of difficulties in using the likelihood function within the Bayesian paradigm which arise both for state estimation and for parameter estimation of chaotic systems. Even when the equations of the system are given, he demonstrated "chaotic likelihood functions" both of initial conditions and of parameter values in the Logistic Map. Chaotic likelihood functions, while ultimately smooth, have such complicated small scale structure as to cast doubt on the possibility of identifying high likelihood states in practice. In this paper, the challenge of chaotic likelihoods is overcome by embedding the observations in a higher dimensional sequence-space; this allows good state estimation with finite computational power. An importance sampling approach is introduced, where Pseudo-orbit Data Assimilation is employed in the sequence-space, first to identify relevant pseudo-orbits and then relevant trajectories. Estimates are identified with likelihoods orders of magnitude higher than those previously identified in the examples given by Berliner. Pseudo-orbit Data Assimilation importance sampler exploits the information both from the model dynamics and from the observations. While sampling from the relevant prior (here, the natural measure) will, of course, eventually yield an accountable sample, given the realistic computational resource this traditional approach would provide no high likelihood points at all. While one of the challenges Berliner posed is overcome, his central conclusion is supported. "Chaotic likelihood functions" for parameter estimation still pose a challenge; this fact helps clarify why physical scientists maintain a strong distinction between the initial condition uncertainty and parameter uncertainty.

A multilayer organic light-emitting diode (OLED) with favorable performance was fabricated via using sodium triphosphate (Na 3 PO 4 ) material as an efficient electron injection layer. Luminance and efficiency of the devices are notably improved due to a thin Na 3 PO 4 layer inserted between electron transport layer (ETL) and aluminum cathode. The optimal thickness of electron injection layer is confirmed to be 1 nm, and the electroluminescent efficiency of OLED reaches 3.5 cd/A. The role of Na 3 PO 4 was investigated on the enhanced performance of OLED through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The effect of different positions of Na 3 PO 4 layer inside Alq 3 layer on the performance of OLED was systematically studied. By comparing with the devices based on ETL/Na 3 PO 4 /Al, ETL/LiF/Al and ETL/NaCl/Al, the electroluminescent efficiency of Na 3 PO 4 - based device is the highest. Na 3 PO 4 as electron injection material has a promising potential application in OLED.

In this paper, bulk heterojunction solar cells with poly-(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT): [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric-acid-methylester (PCBM) as an active layer and modified poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) as a buffer layer are fabricated. The buffer layer is modified by adding 1% to 5% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) into PEDOT: PSS solution before spin-coating. The conductivity of modified PEDOT:PSS and the performance of solar cells with modified PEDOT:PSS are measured. The highest conductivity of modified PEDOT:PSS with 4% DMSO can achieve 89.693 S/cm. The performance of organic solar cell with PEDOT:PSS modified by 4% DMSO is the best. The 4% DMSO-modified-PEDOT:PSS cell has a power conversion efficiency of 3.34%, V oc of 5.7 V, J sc of 14.56 mA/cm2 and filling factor (FF) of 40.34%.

Photovoltaic performance of bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells (PSCs) based on poly(3-hexylthiophene) as donor and [6,6]-phenyl-C 61 -buytyric acid methyl ester as acceptor was improved by using a thin 8-hydroxyquinolatolithium (Liq) interlayer between polymer active layer and Al counter-electrode. By using 1.0 nm Liq, power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the PSC significantly increased to 3.20%, in comparison with a PCE of 2.40% for the PSC without Liq buffer layer. The PCE enhancement was primarily beneficial from the obviously increased short circuit current density, open circuit voltage and fill factor. This improvement is ascribed to the interfacial dipole effect, a better ohmic conductivity and the suppression of leakage current, which are all introduced by the Liq buffer layer.

Different thicknesses of cesium chloride (CsCl) and various alkali metal chlorides were inserted into organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) as electron injection layers (EILs). The basic structure of OLED is indium tin oxide (ITO)/N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(1-napthyl-phenyl)-1.1′-biphenyl-4.4′-diamine (NPB)/tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq3)/Mg:Ag/Ag. The electroluminescent (EL) performance curves show that both the brightness and efficiency of the OLEDs can be obviously enhanced by using a thin alkali metal chloride layer as an EIL. The electron injection barrier height between the Alq3 layer and Mg:Ag cathode is reduced by inserting a thin alkali metal chloride as an EIL, which results in enhanced electron injection and electron current. Therefore, a better balance of hole and electron currents at the emissive interface is achieved and consequently the brightness and efficiency of OLEDs are improved.

We report an efficient hole injection layer (HIL) composed of MoO3-doped C60 for organic light-emitting diodes (OLED). The structure of the OLED device is ITO/MoO3:C60 (5 nm:5 nm)/NPB (45 nm)/Alq3 (55 nm)/LiF (0.5 nm)/Al. Compared with normal device without a HIL, the device using MoO3-doped C60 as HIL can significantly enhance both hole injection efficiency and electroluminescence. The power efficiency has been increased by approximately 40.7% and 41.7% at the current density of 10 mA/cm2 and 100 mA/cm2, respectively, for the device using MoO3-doped C60 as HIL than the control device. The cause for the enhancement was ascribed to the charge transfer complex formed by co-evaporation of MoO3 and C60. Hole-only devices were fabricated to confirm the hole injection enhancement. Ultraviolet/visible/near-infrared absorption spectra were measured to confirm the formation of the charge transfer complex.

A series of small molecular organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on tris (8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq 3 ) was fabricated by varying thicknesses and positions of cesium chloride (CsCl) layer inside Alq 3 layer. Both luminance and efficiency are enhanced due to the improvement of electron injection when a CsCl layer was deposited between Alq 3 and aluminum (Al). For the insertion of the CsCl layer at the 10 nm position inside Alq 3 layer away from Al cathode, the enhanced current density and luminance are attributed to the reaction between diffused Al and Cs. And the efficiency and luminance are enhanced due to the trap sites induced by the CsCl layer at the distance of 20 and 30 nm away from the Al cathode. The current density and luminance of devices, in which various thicknesses of CsCl layer was inserted at 20 nm position inside Alq 3 layer away from the Al cathode, is affected by both hole trapped and insulating layer effects.

A novel structure of organic light-emitting diode was fabricated by inserting a molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) layer into the interface of hole injection layer copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) and hole transport layer N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(1-napthyl–phenyl)-1,1′-biphenyl-4,4′-diamine (NPB). It has the configuration of ITO/CuPc(10 nm)/MoO3(3 nm)/NPB(30 nm)/ tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq3)(60 nm)/LiF(0.5 nm)/Al. The current density–voltage–luminance (J–V–L) performances show that this structure is beneficial to the reduction of driving voltage and the enhancement of luminance. The highest luminance increased by more than 40% compared to the device without hole injection layer. And the driving voltage was decreased obviously. The improvement is ascribed to the step barrier theory, which comes from the tunnel theory. The power efficiency was also enhanced with this novel device structure. Finally, “hole-only” devices were fabricated to verify the enhancement of hole injection and transport properties of this structure.

Parameter estimation in nonlinear models is a common task, and one for which there is no general solution at present. In the case of linear models, the distribution of forecast errors provides a reliable guide to parameter estimation, but in nonlinear models the facts that predictability may vary with location in state space, and that the distribution of forecast errors is expected not to be Normal, means that parameter estimation based on least squares methods will result in systematic errors. A new approach to parameter estimation is presented which focuses on the geometry of trajectories of the model rather than the distribution of distances between model forecast and the observation at a given lead time. Specifically, we test a number of candidate trajectories to determine the duration for which they can shadow the observations, rather than evaluating a forecast error statistic at any specific lead time(s). This yields insights into both the parameters of the dynamical model and those of the observational noise model. The advances reported here are made possible by extracting more information from the dynamical equations, and thus improving the balance between information gleaned from the structural form of the equations and that from the observations. The technique is illustrated for both flows and maps, applied in 2-, 3-, and 8-dimensional dynamical systems, and shown to be effective in a case of incomplete observation where some components of the state are not observed at all. While the demonstration of effectiveness is strong, there remain fundamental challenges in the problem of estimating model parameters when the system that generated the observations is not a member of the model class. Parameter estimation appears ill defined in this case.

The multilayer organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have been fabricated with a thin alkaline metal chloride layer inserted inside an electron transport layer (ETL), tris (8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq 3 ). The alkaline metal chloride layer was inserted inside 60 nm Alq 3 at d =0, 10, 20 and 30 nm positions ( d is the distance of the interlayer away from the Al cathode). The devices, with alkaline metal chlorides inserted at the Alq 3 /Al interface, showed electron injection and electroluminescence (EL) intensity improvements. When the alkaline metal chlorides were inserted inside the Alq 3 layer at 10, 20 or 30 nm position apart from the Al cathode, both EL intensity and efficiency were enhanced for the devices with a thin potassium chloride (KCl) or rubidium chloride (RbCl) layer. On the contrary, the improvements were not observed for the OLEDs with a thin sodium chloride (NaCl) layer. A proposed insulator buffer layer model is employed to explain these characteristics of the devices.

A multilayer organic light-emitting diode (OLED) was fabricated with a thin rubidium chloride (RbCl) layer inserted inside an electron transport layer (ETL), tris (8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq3). Here, we set d is the distance of the RbCl layer away from the Alq3/Al interface. The rubidium chloride layer was inserted inside 60 nm Alq3 at d = 0.0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10, 20 and 30 nm positions. When the RbCl layer is positioned closer to the Al cathode, both the current density and EL efficiency are enhanced due to the enhanced electron injection. The devices show the electroluminescent (EL) efficiency improvement without an enhanced injection if the value of d is lager than 5.0 nm. The suggested mechanism of RbCl EL efficiency enhancer is carrier trap sites induced by the thin RbCl layer. The trapped charges alter the distribution of the field inside the OLED and, consequently, give better recombination in the device.

We report on the fabrication of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) using a zinc acetate ((CH3COO)2Zn) layer as the cathode buffer layer. The results show that the device containing a (CH3COO)2Zn interlayer shows improved luminance and efficiency due to the Zn–N bond formation resulting in the occurrence of Alq3 anion and also due to the band bending at the Alq3/Al interface, which is beneficial to electron injection by lowering electron injection barrier. And the devices with structured cathodes (CH3COO)2Zn/LiF/Al and LiF/(CH3COO)2Zn/Al have a higher luminance and efficiency than the LiF/Al cathode-based device.

The predictive skill of complex models is rarely uniform in model-state space; in weather forecasting models, for example, the skill of the model can be greater in the regions of most interest to a particular operational agency than it is in “remote” regions of the globe. Given a collection of models, a multi-model forecast system using the cross-pollination in time approach can be generalized to take advantage of instances where some models produce forecasts with more information regarding specific components of the model-state than other models, systematically. This generalization is stated and then successfully demonstrated in a moderate (∼40) dimensional nonlinear dynamical system, suggested by Lorenz, using four imperfect models with similar global forecast skill. Applications to weather forecasting and in economic forecasting are discussed. Given that the relative importance of different phenomena in shaping the weather changes in latitude, changes in attitude among forecast centers in terms of the resources assigned to each phenomena are to be expected. The demonstration establishes that cross-pollinating elements of forecast trajectories enriches the collection of simulations upon which the forecast is built, and given the same collection of models can yield a new forecast system with significantly more skill than the original forecast system.