Nb and Mn Co-Modified NaBiTiO Bismuth-Layered Ceramics for High-Frequency Transducer Applications.

Lead-free environmentally friendly piezoelectrical materials with enhanced piezoelectric properties are of great significance for high-resolution ultrasound imaging applications. In this paper, NaBiTiMnNbO (NBT-Nb-Mn) bismuth-layer-structured ceramics were prepared by solid-phase synthesis. The crystallographic structure, micromorphology, and piezoelectrical and electromechanical properties of NBT-Nb-Mn ceramics were examined, showing their enhanced piezoelectricity ( = 33 pC/N) and relatively high electromechanical coupling coefficient ( = 0.

Crop production response to soil moisture and groundwater depletion in the Nile Basin based on multi-source data.

Soil moisture (SM) and groundwater (GW) depletion triggered by anthropogenic and natural climate change are influencing food security via crop production per capita decrease in the Nile River Basin (NRB). However, to the best of our understanding, the causes and impact of SM and GW depletion have not been studied yet comprehensively in the NRB. In this study, GW is derived from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission, and SM was estimated using the Triple Collocation Analysis (TCA).