Topic Review
Fiscal Year
A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many jurisdictions require company financial reports to be prepared and published on an annual basis, but generally do not require the reporting period to align with the calendar year (1 January to 31 December). Taxation laws generally require accounting records to be maintained and taxes calculated on an annual basis, which usually corresponds to the fiscal year used for government purposes. The calculation of tax on an annual basis is especially relevant for direct taxation, such as income tax. Many annual government fees—such as Council rates, license fees, etc.—are also levied on a fiscal year basis, while others are charged on an anniversary basis. Some companies—such as Cisco Systems—end their fiscal year on the same day of the week each year, i.e. the day that is closest to a particular date (for example, the Friday closest to 31 December). Under such a system, some fiscal years will have 52 weeks and others 53 weeks. The calendar year is used as the fiscal year by about 65% of publicly traded companies in the United States and for a majority of large corporations in the UK. It's the case in many countries around the world with a few exceptions, for example, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Many universities have a fiscal year which ends during the summer to align the fiscal year with the academic year (and, in some cases involving public universities, with the state government's fiscal year), and because the university is normally less busy during the summer months. In the northern hemisphere this is July to the next June. In the southern hemisphere this is calendar year, January to December. Some media/communication-based organizations use a broadcast calendar as the basis for their fiscal year. The fiscal year is usually denoted by the calendar year in which it ends, so United States federal government spending incurred on 14 November 2022 would belong to fiscal year 2023, operating on a fiscal calendar of October–September.
  • 1.8K
  • 11 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Piezoelectric Transducers Energy Conversion Network
Conversion between mechanical energy and electrical energy is critically important in industrial applications. Piezoelectric materials are unique for their ability in electric–mechanical transduction by applications of piezoelectric transducers that are usually spherical, cylindrical, or schistose. This topic review presents the most recent development of a piezoelectric transducers energy conversion network.
  • 1.8K
  • 31 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Muon Radiography with Nuclear Emulsion Detectors
The paper presents the test experiment to investigate one of UNESCO’s world heritage objects, an archaeological site in the Naryn-Kala citadel (Derbent, Republic of Dagestan, RF) hidden under the ground surface. The function of the site could be revealed by the muon radiography studies. Several nuclear emulsion detectors were exposed for two months inside the site at a depth about 10 m from the modern surface. The use of nuclear emulsions as probing radiation detectors combined with the potential of modern image analysis methods provides for a uniquely high resolution capacity of recording instrumentation and 3D reconstruction of the internal structure of the investigated object. Here we present short descrption of muon radiography method, the test experiment, data analysis details and the first results.
  • 1.7K
  • 30 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Gyrotrons
Gyrotrons are among the most powerful sources of coherent radiation that operate in CW and long pulse regimes in the sub-THz and the THz frequency ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum, i.e. between 0.3 THz and 3.0 THz (corresponding to wavelengths from 1.0 to 0.1 mm). This region, which spans between the frequency bands occupied by various electronic and photonic devices, respectively, is habitually called a THz power gap. The underlying mechanism of the operation of the gyrotron involves a formation of bunches of electrons gyrating in a helical electron beam and their synchronous interaction with a fast (i.e. having a superluminal phase velocity) electromagnetic wave, producing a bremsstrahlung radiation. In contrast to the slow-wave tubes, which utilize tiny structures with dimensions comparable to the wavelength of the radiation, the gyrotrons have a simpler resonant system (cavity resonator) with dimensions that are much greater than the wavelength. This allows much more powerful electron beams to be used and thus higher output powers to be achieved. Although in comparison with the classical microwave tubes the gyrotrons are characterized by greater volume and weight due to the presence of bulky parts (such as superconducting magnets and massive collectors where the energy of the spent electron beam is dissipated) they are much more compact and can easily be embedded in a sophisticated laboratory equipment (e.g. spectrometers, technological systems, etc.) than other devices such as free-electron lasers (FEL) and radiation sources based on electron accelerators. Nowadays, the gyrotrons are used as powerful sources of coherent radiation in the wide fields of high-power sub-THz and THz science and technologies [1][2][3].
  • 1.7K
  • 29 Oct 2020
Topic Review
MEMS Acoustic Emission Sensors
Micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) acoustic emission (AE) sensors are designed to detect active defects in materials with the transduction mechanisms of piezoresistivity, capacitance or piezoelectricity. The majority of MEMS AE sensors are designed as resonators to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. The fundamental design variables of MEMS AE sensors include resonant frequency, bandwidth/quality factor and sensitivity. Micromachining methods have the flexibility to tune the sensor frequency to a particular range, which is important, as the frequency of AE signal depends on defect modes, constitutive properties and structural composition.
  • 1.7K
  • 22 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Stellar Aberration (Derivation from Lorentz Transformation)
Stellar aberration is an astronomical phenomenon "which produces an apparent motion of celestial objects". It can be proven mathematically that stellar aberration is due to the change of the astronomer's inertial frame of reference. The formula is derived with the use of Lorentz transformation of the star's coordinates. As the astronomer John Herschel has already explained in 1844, the stellar aberration does not depend on the relative velocity of the star towards Earth. Otherwise eclipsing binary stars would appear to be separated, in stark contrast to observation: both stars are rotating with high speed —and ever changing and different velocity vectors— around each other, but they appear as one spot all the time.
  • 1.7K
  • 27 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Progress of 2D Semiconductor-based photocatalysts
A complete view of basic principles and mechanisms with regard to improving the structure stability, physical and chemical properties of the low dimensional semiconductor-based photocatalysts is presented here. Various 2D semiconductor-based photocatalysts show a high electrochemical property and photocatalytic performance due to their ultrathin character, high specific surface area with more activity sites, tunable bandgap to absorb sunlight and versatile options in structural assembly with other nanosheets. At present, most photocatalysts still need rare or expensive noble metals to improve the photocatalytic activity, which inhibits their commercial-scale application extremely. Thus, developing less costly, earth-abundant semiconductor-based photocatalysts with the efficient conversion of sunlight energy remains the primary challenge. A concise overview of different types of 2D semiconductor-mediated photocatalysts is given to figure out the advantages and disadvantages for mentioned semiconductor-based photocatalysis, including the structural property and stability, synthesize method, electrochemical property, and optical properties for H2/O2 production half-reaction along with overall water splitting.
  • 1.7K
  • 21 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have emerged as promising alternatives to traditional silicon-based solar cells due to their relatively high conversion efficiency, low cost, flexibility, and environmentally benign fabrication processes.
  • 1.6K
  • 25 Oct 2020
Topic Review
FTIR for Vehicle Exhaust Emissions
In a Fourier Transform InfraRed (FTIR) spectrometer, some of the infrared (IR) radiation is absorbed by the sample, and some of it is passed through (transmitted). The resulting molecular absorption and transmission response can be used to identify the components of the sample and their concentration.
  • 1.5K
  • 20 Aug 2021
Topic Review
High-Spectral-Resolution Lidar
High-spectral-resolution lidar (HSRL) is a powerful tool for atmospheric aerosol remote sensing. A ground-based high-spectral-resolution lidar (HSRL), operated at 532 nm wavelength, has been developed at Zhejiang University (ZJU) for aerosols and clouds studies. This lidar provides vertical profiles of aerosol scattering ratio together with lidar ratio and particle depolarization ratio at 532 nm. Determination of overlap function is a key step in the calibration of a high-spectral-resolution lidar (HSRL) and important guarantee of data retrieval, an iterative-based general determination (IGD) method for overlap function in HSRL is proposed. The standard method to retrieve the extinction coefficient from HSRL signals depends heavily on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). An iterative image reconstruction (IIR) method is proposed for the retrieval of the aerosol extinction coefficient based on HSRL data under low SNR condition. With the optical properties, a state-of-the-art method for feature detection and classification is proposed to automatically identify the features attributed to dust/polluted dust, urban/smoke, maritime aerosols, as well as ice and liquid water cloud during day and night.
  • 1.5K
  • 22 Feb 2021
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