Rapid, 5 min, low temperature aqueous platinization for plastic substrates for dye-sensitized solar cells

This paper reports a rapid (5 min), low temperature (120 �C) method to platinize the counter electrodes of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) devices. This new method uses aqueous solutions and is based on chemical bath deposition of an activating Pd layer followed by Pt only using H2 gas as the reductant. This method has been tested on flexible, plastic substrates (indium tin oxide-coated polyethylene terephthalate or polyethylene naphthalate, ITO-PET or ITO-PEN, respectively). We report device efficiencies up to 7.2% on ITO-PET which is comparable to devices made using high temperature (400 �C) processing on rigid, fluoride-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass counter electrodes. The method is scalable and suitable for continuous roll-to-roll production

Graph-Embedding Empowered Entity Retrieval

In this research, we improve upon the current state of the art in entity retrieval by re-ranking the result list using graph embeddings. The paper shows that graph embeddings are useful for entity-oriented search tasks. We demonstrate empirically that encoding information from the knowledge graph into (graph) embeddings contributes to a higher increase in effectiveness of entity retrieval results than using plain word embeddings. We analyze the impact of the accuracy of the entity linker on the overall retrieval effectiveness. Our analysis further deploys the cluster hypothesis to explain the observed advantages of graph embeddings over the more widely used word embeddings, for user tasks involving ranking entities

Structure-mechanics relationships of collagen fibrils in the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Mouse model

The collagen molecule, which is the building block of collagen fibrils, is a triple helix of two α1(I) chains and one α2(I) chain. However, in the severe mouse model of osteogenesis imperfecta (OIM), deletion of the COL1A2 gene results in the substitution of the α2(I) chain by one α1(I) chain. As this substitution severely impairs the structure and mechanics of collagen-rich tissues at the tissue and organ level, the main aim of this study was to investigate how the structure and mechanics are altered in OIM collagen fibrils. Comparing results from atomic force microscopy imaging and cantilever-based nanoindentation on collagen fibrils from OIM and wild-type (WT) animals, we found a 33% lower indentation modulus in OIM when air-dried (bound water present) and an almost fivefold higher indentation modulus in OIM collagen fibrils when fully hydrated (bound and unbound water present) in phosphate-buffered saline solution (PBS) compared with WT collagen fibrils. These mechanical changes were accompanied by an impaired swelling upon hydration within PBS. Our experimental and atomistic simulation results show how the structure and mechanics are altered at the individual collagen fibril level as a result of collagen gene mutation in OIM. We envisage that the combination of experimental and modelling approaches could allow mechanical phenotyping at the collagen fibril level of virtually any alteration of collagen structure or chemistry.United States. Dept. of Defense. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and EngineersNational Science Foundation (U.S.) (CAREER Award

Near-Field Analysis of Terahertz Pulse Generation From Photo-Excited Charge Density Gradients

Excitation of photo-current transients at semiconductor surfaces by subpicosecond optical pulses gives rise to emission of electromagnetic pulses of terahertz (THz) frequency radiation. To correlate the THz emission with the photo-excited charge density distribution and the photo-current direction, we mapped near-field and far-field distributions of the generated THz waves from GaAs and Fe-doped InGaAs surfaces. The experimental results show that the charge dynamics in the plane of the surface can radiate substantially stronger THz pulses than the charge dynamics in the direction normal to the surface, which is generally regarded as the dominant origin of the emission

Yet another breakdown point notion: EFSBP - illustrated at scale-shape models

The breakdown point in its different variants is one of the central notions to quantify the global robustness of a procedure. We propose a simple supplementary variant which is useful in situations where we have no obvious or only partial equivariance: Extending the Donoho and Huber(1983) Finite Sample Breakdown Point, we propose the Expected Finite Sample Breakdown Point to produce less configuration-dependent values while still preserving the finite sample aspect of the former definition. We apply this notion for joint estimation of scale and shape (with only scale-equivariance available), exemplified for generalized Pareto, generalized extreme value, Weibull, and Gamma distributions. In these settings, we are interested in highly-robust, easy-to-compute initial estimators; to this end we study Pickands-type and Location-Dispersion-type estimators and compute their respective breakdown points.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure

Promoting Behaviour Change in Long term Conditions using a Self-Management Platform

Physical rehabilitation of brain injuries and strokes is a time consuming and costly process. Over the past decade several studies have emerged looking at the use of highly sophisticated technologies, such as robotics and virtual reality to tap into the needs of clinicians and patients. While such technologies can be a valuable tool to facilitate intensive movement practice in a motivating and engaging environment, success of therapy also depends on self-administered therapy beyond hospital stay. With the emergence of low-cost gaming consoles such as the Nintendo Wii, new opportunities arise for home-therapy paradigms centred on social interactions and values, which could reduce the sense of isolation and other depression related complications. In this paper we examine the potential, user acceptance and usability of an unmodified Nintendo Wii gaming console as a low-cost treatment alternative to complement current rehabilitation programmes