Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology

About: Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology is a education organization based out in Nanjing, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Precipitation & Aerosol. The organization has 14129 authors who have published 17985 publications receiving 267578 citations. The organization is also known as: Nan Xin Da.

First-principles study of thermal properties of borophene

Abstract: Very recently, a new single-element two-dimensional (2D) material borophene was successfully grown on a silver surface under pristine ultrahigh vacuum conditions which attracts tremendous interest. In this paper, the lattice thermal conductivity, phonon lifetimes, thermal expansion and temperature dependent elastic moduli of borophene are systematically studied by using first-principles. Our simulations show that borophene possesses unique thermal properties. Strong phonon–phonon scattering is found in borophene, which results in its unexpectedly low lattice thermal conductivity. Thermal expansion coefficients along both the armchair and zigzag directions of borophene show impressive negative values. More strikingly, the elastic moduli are sizably strengthened as temperature increases, and the negative in-plane Poisson's ratios are found along both the armchair and zigzag directions at around 120 K. The mechanisms of these unique thermal properties are also discussed in this paper.

Source apportionment of atmospheric ammonia before, during, and after the2014 APEC summit in Beijing using stable nitrogen isotope signatures

Abstract: . Stable nitrogen isotope composition (δ15N) offers new opportunities to address the long-standing and ongoing controversy regarding the origins of ambient ammonia (NH3), a vital precursor of PM2.5 (particulate matters with aerodynamic diameter equal or less than 2.5 µm) inorganic components, in the urban atmosphere. In this study, the δ15N values of NH3 samples collected from various sources were constrained using a novel and robust chemical method coupled with standard elemental analysis procedures. Independent of the wide variation in mass concentrations (ranging from 33 (vehicle) to over 6000 (human excreta) µg m−3), different NH3 sources have generally different δ15N values (ranging from −52.0 to −9.6 ‰). Significantly high δ15N values are seen as a characteristic feature of all vehicle-derived NH3 samples (−14.2 ± 2.8 ‰), which can be distinguished from other sources emitted at environmental temperature (−29.1 ± 1.7, −37.8 ± 3.6, and −50.0 ± 1.8 ‰ for livestock, waste, and fertilizer, respectively). The isotope δ15N signatures for a range of NH3 emission sources were used to evaluate the contributions of the different sources within measured ambient NH3 in Beijing, using an isotope mixing model (IsoSource). The method was used to quantify the sources of ambient NH3 before, during and after the 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, when a set of stringent air quality control measures were implemented. Results show that the average NH3 concentrations (the overall contributions of traffic, waste, livestock, and fertilizer) during the three periods were 9.1 (20.3, 28.3, 23.6, and 27.7 %), 7.3 (8.8, 24.9, 14.3, and 52.0 %), and 12.7 (29.4, 23.6, 31.7, and 15.4 %) µg m−3, respectively, representing a 20.0 % decrease first and then a 74.5 % increase in overall NH3 mass concentrations. During (after) the summit, the contributions of traffic, waste, livestock, and fertilizer decreased (increased) by 56.7 (234.2), 12.0 (−5.0), 39.4 (120.8), and −87.7 % (−70.5 %) when compared with periods before (during) the summit, respectively, signifying that future NH3 control efforts in megacities like Beijing should prioritize traffic sector as well as livestock breeding. The results show that isotope ratio measurements of NH3 to be a valuable tool to quantify the atmospheric sources of NH3 in urban atmospheres.

Firefly algorithm with adaptive control parameters

Abstract: Firefly algorithm (FA) is a new swarm intelligence optimization method, which has shown good search abilities on many optimization problems. However, the performance of FA highly depends on its control parameters. In this paper, we investigate the control parameters of FA, and propose a modified FA called FA with adaptive control parameters (ApFA). To verify the performance of ApFA, experiments are conducted on a set of well-known benchmark problems. Results show that the ApFA outperforms the standard FA and five other recently proposed FA variants.