Search Results (246)

Photocatalytic reduction of CO₂ into value-added chemicals offers a sustainable route to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions while producing renewable fuels. However, conventional TiO₂-based systems suffer from limited visible-light activity and inefficient reactor configurations. Here, we developed electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) membranes embedded with TiO₂-Cu₂O heterojunction nanoparticles and integrated them into a custom crossflow photocatalytic membrane reactor. The reactor employed bifacial illumination using a solar simulator (front) and a xenon/mercury lamp (back), each calibrated to 1 Sun (100 mW·cm⁻²). Membrane morphology was characterized by SEM, and chemical composition was confirmed by XPS. Photocatalytic performance was evaluated in CO₂-saturated 0.5 M potassium bicarbonate solution under continuous flow. The PAN/ TiO₂-Cu₂O membrane exhibited a methanol production rate of approximately 300 μmol·g⁻¹·h⁻¹ under dual-light illumination, outperforming single illumination, PAN-TiO₂, and PAN controls. Enhanced activity is attributed to extended visible-light absorption, improved charge separation at the TiO₂-Cu₂O heterojunction, and optimized photon flux through bifacial illumination. The electrospun architecture provided high surface area and porosity, facilitating CO₂ adsorption and catalyst dispersion. Combining heterojunction engineering with bifacial reactor design significantly improves solar-driven CO₂ conversion. This approach offers a scalable pathway for integrating photocatalysis and membrane technology into sustainable fuel synthesis. Full article

The influence of crown illumination on leaf damage of horse chestnut species (Aesculus hippocastanum L., Aesculus glabra Willd, Aesculus flava Aiton, Aesculus pavia L., Aesculus × carnea Hayne, Aesculus parviflora Walter, Aesculus chinensis Bunge) affected by ohrid leaf miner (Cameraria ohridella Deschka & Dymić) was studied using some accessions from the arboretum botanical tree collection. A. hippocastanum, A. glabra, A. flava had the lowest chl a content in the foliage on the sunlit side of the crown, while in A. pavia, A. parviflora and A. chinensis this indicator was the highest. The chl a content in the leaves of A. hippocastanum and A. flava under shaded conditions was 1.3 and 2.4 times higher than in the sunlit part, while in A. pavia, A. parviflora and A. chinensis the chl a content on the shaded side was 1.2, 1.6 and 1.3 times lower. The quantitative content of chl b in the sunlit part of the crown in A. hippocastanum and A. flava was significantly higher than in the other species. Moreover, while A. flava and A. parviflora had the highest chl b content in the foliage of the shaded part of the crown, A. glabra and A. × carnea had the lowest. Similarly, differences in proline levels were found in the leaves of different horse chestnut species on the sunny side of the crown. Higher proline levels in less infested species were identified. Water content imbalances due to feeding by leaf miners were most characteristic of the severely affected species. Chlorophyll fluorescence determination revealed high photochemical activity with an effective defense system in resistant species, while non-resistant species exhibited weak defense mechanisms in both sunlight and shade. To assess horse chestnut species the hyperspectral analysis indices (DSWI and SIPI) were also successfully applied. Changes in chl a and chl b content, proline levels, and leaf water-holding properties can be used to assess the resistance of horse chestnut species using classical physiological and biochemical methods. Hyperspectral analysis indices (DSWI and SIPI) can also be successfully applied. Full article

Long-range, high-resolution distance measurement with high ambient-light tolerance has been achieved using a 720 × 488-resolution short-pulse indirect time-of-flight (SP-iToF) image sensor featuring six-tap, one-drain pixels fabricated by a front-side illumination (FSI) process. The sensor performs 30-phase demodulation through six-tap pixels in each subframe, combined with five range-shifted subframe (SF) readouts. The six-tap demodulation pixel, designed with a lateral drift-field pinned photodiode, demonstrates over 90% demodulation contrast for a 20 ns light-pulse width. High-speed column-parallel 12-bit cyclic ADCs enable all six-tap subframe signals to be read within 4.38 ms. This high-speed subframe readout, together with efficient exposure-time allocation across the five subframes, enables a depth-image frame rate of 10 fps. The multi-phase demodulation in SP-iToF measurements, operating with an extremely small duty ratio of 0.2%, effectively suppresses ambient-light charge accumulation and the associated shot noise in the pixel. As a result, distance measurements up to 100 m under 100 klux illumination are achieved, with depth noise maintained below 1%. Full article

Photosystem I (PSI) photoinhibition (PI(I)) is gaining traction as a potentially more significant threat to plant performance than photoinhibition of photosystem II (PSII). The increased focus is facilitated by the implementation of specific protocols that induce PI(I), such as artificial fluctuating light (FL) and repetitive short saturating pulses (rSPs). rSPs were long considered a specific sub-case of FL. However, recent evidence suggests that PI(I) proceeds via at least two distinct, treatment-dependent mechanisms, leading to damage at the donor or acceptor side of PSI. This discovery suggests that rSPs and FL represent distinct photoinhibitory stresses and that different mechanisms protect PSI against FL and rSPs. This study comparatively analyzed the effects of FL and rSPs on PSI activity in Arabidopsis thaliana wild-type plants and a selection of mutants (pgr5, pgrl1, stn7, tap38/pph1, and pgr1), previously noted or hypothesized to have altered PI(I) sensitivity relative to the wild type. The results of this work, particularly the contrasting sensitivity of tap38/pph1 compared to the wild type under FL and rSP conditions, strongly suggest that pulsed illumination and fluctuating light are distinct photoinhibitory treatments, and different mechanisms protect PSI against them. Full article

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of a backside illumination (BSI) structure in a short-pulse indirect time-of-flight (SP-iToF) sensor employing 6-tap pixels. Impulse response measurements comparing 6-tap iToF pixels fabricated with both front-side illumination (FSI) and BSI structures demonstrate that the BSI configuration yields a significantly faster response to near-infrared (NIR) light at 850 nm. Specifically, the time constants near the response peak and tail are 0.35 ns and 0.93 ns, respectively—approximately half those observed in the FSI counterpart. Demodulation contrast (DC) measurements further highlight the advantages of the BSI structure. The BSI pixel achieves a DC of 99.5% with a gating pulse width (PW) of 10 ns, which decreases only slightly to 95.3% at a PW of 3 ns. In contrast, the FSI pixel shows a DC of 97.0% at 10 ns, but drops markedly to 80.0% at 3 ns. These improvements are primarily attributed to the thinner substrate used in the BSI sensor. The implemented 6-tap ToF sensor exhibits excellent depth linearity (<±0.8% full scale) and high resolution (<2%) across an indoor measurement range of 3 to 28 m. Full article

Edge inference systems must sustain real-time performance under dynamic environments such as sensor noise, illumination change, and new object classes. Conventional edge devices deploy static offline-trained models, causing accuracy degradation when the input distribution drifts. This study proposes a runtime-robust edge inference framework that enables continuous adaptation without interrupting execution. The edge device partitions its memory into active and adaptive regions, applying task-specific masked updates generated by a server-side FPGA. The FPGA performs layer-wise importance analysis, partial retraining, and adaptive mask generation using dynamic partial reconfiguration (DPR) to minimize reconfiguration delay. Experiments on MNIST, CIFAR-10, and Tiny ImageNet show that the proposed method reduces adaptation latency by up to 1.3× compared with GPU full retraining while cutting the communication cost to 28% of full model transmission. These results demonstrate that combining masking-based selective updates with FPGA DPR acceleration achieves real-time adaptability, low latency, and communication-efficient learning in cloud–edge collaborative environments. Full article

The shortage of freshwater resources and the depletion of fossil fuels have emerged as two pivotal challenges confronting global development. Photothermal membrane distillation (PMD) technology, a technique that harnesses solar energy for seawater desalination, not only produces freshwater but also mitigates the pressure of energy depletion. However, its sole focus on freshwater production no longer meets the demands of the energy market. Based on this, this study proposes a power–water cogeneration system based on PMD and thermal-osmotic energy conversion (TOEC) technology. The system achieves power–water cogeneration by changing the supply side heat source structure of TOEC technology and coupling it with traditional PMD technology. The experimental results showed that under the illumination condition of solar intensity of 4 kW·m⁻² for 3.5 h, the fresh water production and water production rate of the system reached 2.23 g and 1.39 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹, respectively. Meanwhile, the fresh water output pressure reached 0.91 bar, and the output power density was 0.0456 W·m⁻². This system is expected to provide a new solution to address the global shortage of freshwater resources and the depletion of fossil fuels. Full article

Passive and active targets, both implanted with gold nanoprisms, were designed to achieve enhanced, uniform power absorption during two-sided illumination with short laser pulses. The capabilities of uniform, single-peaked Gaussian and adjusted nanoresonator number density distributions were compared. The average local E-field inside the gain medium and at the nanoprism surface was mapped as a function of the pump E-field strength and dye concentration, and the optimal parameters were selected based on the achievable local E-field. A comparative study was performed on passive and active targets to determine the most favorable distribution type and to consider the advantages of dye doping. The adjusted distribution is proposed for both passive and active targets. Dye doping is advantageous in all distributions as it results in decreasing the minimal standard deviation of the near-field enhancement (NFE), the delay of the minimal standard deviation in the power loss and deposited energy, and the standard deviation of the NFE, while increasing the FOM of the NFE in the uniform and adjusted distributions. Dye doping allows for decreasing the delay of the minimal standard deviation in the NFE, increasing the mean NFE, and decreasing the standard deviation of the power loss and deposited energy in the uniform, Gaussian, and adjusted distribution, respectively. Full article

Seismic data migration is a critical step for accurate subsurface imaging. While Ocean Bottom Cable (OBC) surveys provide high-quality seismic data, reliance on primary reflections alone leads to significant illumination gaps. Receiver-side ghost waves can mitigate these gaps; however, conventional mirror migration suffers from low resolution and amplitude inaccuracy. To address these limitations, this study introduces a high-resolution mirror migration framework based on Point Spread Function (PSF)-guided inversion imaging. The methodology involves first separating the OBC wavefield to isolate ghost-wave components, followed by applying standard mirror migration to produce an initial, blurred image. Subsequently, the PSFs of down-going ghost waves are estimated to characterize imaging distortions, and image-domain least squares migration (LSM) is implemented via PSF deconvolution to reconstruct high-resolution reflectivity. Numerical experiments on complex models demonstrate that the proposed method preserves the additional illumination provided by this wavefield, substantially improves the spatial resolution of imaging targets, and enhances lateral continuity. Quantitative analysis confirms this enhancement through a significant extension of the effective vertical wavenumber bandwidth and the recovery of higher-frequency content. The framework provides a robust and computationally efficient solution for high-fidelity OBC imaging, enabling more reliable subsurface interpretation. Full article

In this paper we proposed and investigated a higher efficiency plasmonic vortex by adding an auxiliary nanogroove in the multi-arm Archimedes spiral slit; the added nanogroove helps enhance the intensity of the generated plasmonic vortex using transmissive spiral structures to help position the incident and reflected beams on opposite sides of the metal structure, which reduces background noise interference from the incident light. In addition, the proposed structures can generate plasmonic vortex with different orders when illuminated with circularly polarized light. When illuminated with circularly polarized light, the relative peak intensity of the primary ring electric field formed outside the central dark field reaches up to 1.45 times that without auxiliary metal groove and when illuminated with linearly polarized light, this intensity ratio reaches up to 1.42 times. Therefore, the background noise can be reduced. The proposed structure is helpful for the high-density integration of optical chips, holding significant implications for advancing the miniaturization and integration of future optoelectronic devices. Full article

We developed a 2.2 µm backside-illuminated (BSI) global shutter (GS) pixel featuring true charge-domain-correlated double sampling (CDS). To enhance the inverse parasitic light sensitivity (1/PLS), we implemented a thick-film epitaxial process incorporating a dual-depth deep trench isolation (DTI) structure. The thickness of the epitaxial substrate was 8.5 µm. This structure was designed using optical simulation. By using a thick epitaxial substrate, it is possible to reduce the amount of light that reaches the memory node. The dual-depth DTI design, with a shallower trench on the readout side, enables efficient signal transfer from the photodiode (PD) to the memory node. To achieve this structure, we developed a process for thick epitaxial substrate, and the dual-depth DTI can be fabricated with a single mask. This pixel represents the smallest charge-domain GS pixel developed to date. Despite its compact size, it achieves a high quantum efficiency (QE) of 83% (monochrome sample: wavelength = 560 nm) and a 1/PLS exceeding 10,000 (white halogen lamp with IR-cut filter). The pixel retains 80% of its peak QE at ±15° incident angles and maintains stable 1/PLS performance even under low F-number (F#) conditions. Full article

Background/Objectives: Early localization of solitary pulmonary nodules (SPNs) remains challenging despite technological advances in endoscopic navigation, as the procedure often necessitates multiple ionizing imaging examinations. This study aimed to develop and evaluate a radiation-free optical method for SPN localization based on near-infrared (NIR) translumination. Methods: A miniaturized NIR light source was introduced into the bronchial tree to illuminate the lung parenchyma. The transmitted and scattered NIR light was detected in real time from the pleural side using minipleuroscopy and a CMOS camera. The approach exploits intrinsic differences in optical absorption and scattering between normal and pathological lung tissue, allowing visualization of the parenchymal micro-architecture without exogenous contrast agents. Results: In ex vivo porcine lungs, tissue structures were clearly visualized through up to approximately 4 cm of parenchyma. In a ventilated pig (n = 1), bronchial NIR illumination was consistently detected from the pleural cavity and produced distinct images of lobular structures and the bronchial mucosa. Conclusions: These feasibility findings demonstrate that NIR translumination can provide radiation-free intra-thoracic visualization and may serve as a valuable adjunct for biopsy guidance. Further quantitative validation and clinical translation are warranted to establish its applicability in human pulmonary procedures. Full article

We evaluate tactile-first robotic traversal on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) figure-8 mobility test using a two-way repeated-measures design across various algorithms (three tactile policies—M1 reactive, M2 terrain-weighted, M3 memory-augmented; a monocular camera baseline, CB-V; a tactile histogram baseline, T-VFH; and an optional tactile-informed replanner, T-D* Lite) and lighting conditions (Indoor, Outdoor, and Dark). The platform is the custom-built Eleven robot—a quadruped integrating a joint-mounted tactile tentacle with a tip force-sensitive resistor (FSR; Walfront 9snmyvxw25, China; 0–10 kg range, ≈0.1 N resolution @ 83 Hz) and a woven Galvorn carbon-nanotube (CNT) yarn for proprioceptive bend sensing. Control and sensing are fully wireless via an ESP32-S3, Arduino Nano 33 BLE, Raspberry Pi 400, and a mini VESC controller. Across 660 trials, the tactile stack maintained ∼21 ms (p50) policy latency and mid-80% success across all lighting conditions, including total darkness. The memory-augmented tactile policy (M3) exhibited consistent robustness relative to the camera baseline (CB-V), trailing by only ≈3–4% in Indoor and ≈13–16% in Outdoor and Dark conditions. Pre-specified, two one-sided tests (TOSTs) confirmed no speed equivalence in any M3↔CB-V comparison. Unlike vision-based approaches, tactile-first traversal is invariant to illumination and texture—an essential capability for navigation in darkness, smoke, or texture-poor, confined environments. Overall, these results show that a tactile-first, memory-augmented control stack achieves lighting-independent traversal on DHS benchmarks while maintaining competitive latency and success, trading modest speed for robustness and sensing independence. Full article

Proper daylighting in educational buildings improves students’ mood and health. However, daylighting can be affected by multiple environmental features, and comprehensive investigations remain limited. This study examined how various classroom environmental features affect students’ mood perception in six classrooms of three middle schools in eastern China. Eighteen environmental features across six dimensions were assessed through field studies and software simulations, and 557 valid mood responses were collected from 243 students through questionnaires. Traditional machine learning and deep learning models were used to predict students’ mood perception with the environmental features, with SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) applied to interpret the contributions of different features. Results showed that Random Forest achieved a relatively high accuracy of 82% in the binary classification of mood perception prediction. Among all features, Exterior view evaluation (EVE) had the largest impact and showed a strong interaction with floor level. Higher floors and EVE ≥ 3 were associated with more positive moods. Beneficial conditions for mood perception also included horizontal desktop illuminance above 300 lx, frontal eye-level illuminance below 400 lx, left-side eye-level illuminance within 300–1000 lx, and proximity to windows below 2.5 m. These findings provide new insights and practical guidance for designing healthier classroom environments to promote adolescent mental health, thereby contributing to sustainable educational environments that integrate human well-being with energy-efficient daylighting design. Full article

Within the framework of the Healthy China strategy, daylighting in primary and secondary schools is crucial for students’ health and learning efficiency. Most schools in China still face insufficient and uneven daylighting, along with limited outdoor solar exposure, underscoring the need for systematic optimization. Guided by the “Daylighting School” concept, this study proposes a campus design model that integrates indoor daylighting with outdoor activity opportunities and explores a generative optimization approach. The research reviews daylighting and thermal performance metrics, summarizes European and American “Daylighting School” experiences, and develops three classroom prototypes—Standard Side-Lit, High Side-Lit, and Skylight-Lit—together with corresponding campus layout models. A two-stage optimization experiment was conducted on a high school site in Guangzhou. Stage 1 optimized block location and functional layout using solar radiation illuminance and activity accessibility distance. Stage 2 refined classroom configurations based on four key performance indicators: sDA, sGA, UOD, and APMV-mean. Results show that optimized layouts improved activity path efficiency and daylight availability. High Side-Lit and Skylight-Lit classrooms outperformed traditional Side-Lit in illuminance, uniformity, and glare control. To improve efficiency, an ANN-based prediction model was introduced to replace conventional simulation engines, enabling rapid large-scale assessment of complex classroom clusters and providing architects with real-time decision support for daylight-oriented educational building design. Full article