We study tournaments where winning a rank-dependent prize requires passing a reserve---a minimum performance standard. Agents' performance is determined by effort and noise. For log-concave noise distributions the optimal reserve is at the modal performance, and the optimal prize scheme is...

We investigate how an informed designer maximizes her objective when facinga player whose payoff depends on both the designer's private information andon an unknown state within the classical quasilinear environment. Thedesigner can disclose arbitrary information about the state via...

Hybrid machine tools are suitable for machining structural components with complex geometries due to their merits of flexible posture adjustment and quick dynamic response. This paper proposes a novel hybrid machine tool with 5-axis machining capability by integrating a newly invented...

VO 2 as a potential type of cathode material for aqueous Zn-ion batteries (AZIBs) has attracted increasing interest over the past few years, owing to the various oxidation states of vanadium and unique tunnel transport pathway. However, the major challenge for VO 2 is the absence of a...

The multi-colour afterglow materials have attracted widespread attention recently, because they not only can eliminate the interference of scattered light and background fluorescence, but also store the richer information. In this work, cellulose-based nitrogen-doped carbon dots (CDs) were...

Ovarian cancer (OC) is the leading cause of death of gynecological malignancy. Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) with high penetration ability and biosafety is considered as a minimally invasive method for the elimination of deep tumor. However, sonosensitizers with high efficiency are still urgently...

Octanol-Water Partition Coefficient ( Kow ) is an extremely important and widely used parameter for studying the distribution and balance of organic pollutants in environmental media. Therefore, theoretical determination and prediction of such property are vital in environmental chemistry. The...