Nanocrystalline ZrO 2 fine powders were prepared via the one-pot reaction followed by annealing from 700 to 1100 °C in air. It is believed that generation of excess oxygen vacancies within nanocrystalline ZrO 2 is primarily responsible for room-temperature tetragonal phase stabilization below a critical size, and the phase transformation from tetragonal to monoclinic ZrO 2 happened in the annealing process. Luminescent properties of ZrO 2 were greatly affected by oxygen vacancies in the phase transition process. Two bands centered at 350 and 470 nm were observed in tetragonal ZrO 2 . The electrons trapped by oxygen vacancies creating F centers recombined with holes yielding the 350 nm luminescence. Temporal decay of the 470 nm luminescence is due to the detrapping of electrons to the Ti 3+ luminescence centers. Elevated temperature accelerated the phase transformation to monoclinic ZrO 2 and decreased the oxygen vacancy concentration, resulting in a decrease of the 350 nm emission and enhancement of the 470 nm phosphorescence.

This study evaluated two training procedures that might be used to increase native English (NE) and native Chinese (NC) listeners' ability to discriminate the mid vs. low tone contrast in Thai under two different inter-stimulus-interval (ISI) conditions (i.e., 500-ms and 1500-ms). Participants were assigned to receive training using either a two-alternative forced-choice identification (ID) procedure or a categorial same/different discrimination (SD) procedure. The results obtained indicated that (a) NC performed significantly better than NE both before and after the training under both ISI conditions, (b) both groups of listeners improved significantly after training and (c) both training procedures (ID and SD) were equally effective in promoting phonological representation of Thai tones among both groups of listeners.

This study used data from the 2015 National Financial Capability Study to analyze the adoption of mobile payments by U.S. households. While 24% of respondents used mobile payments, the mean rate for those under age 25 was 11 times the rate for those 65 and older. State rates ranged from about 9% in Montana to 34% in Washington, DC. Based on a logistic regression, age and an objective financial knowledge score were negatively while risk tolerance and a subjective financial knowledge score were positively related to mobile payment use. The results have implications for marketing of Fintech applications for personal finance, especially in terms of the extremely low mobile payment use by older consumers.

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