The application of encapsulation material stability data to photovoltaic module life assessment

For any piece of hardware that degrades when subject to environmental and application stresses, the route or sequence that describes the degradation process may be summarized in terms of six key words: LOADS, RESPONSE, CHANGE, DAMAGE, FAILURE, and PENALTY. Applied to photovoltaic modules, these six factors form the core outline of an expanded failure analysis matrix for unifying and integrating relevant material degradation data and analyses. An important feature of this approach is the deliberate differentiation between factors such as CHANGE, DAMAGE, and FAILURE. The application of this outline to materials degradation research facilitates the distinction between quantifying material property changes and quantifying module damage or power loss with their economic consequences. The approach recommended for relating material stability data to photovoltaic module life is to use the degree of DAMAGE to (1) optical coupling, (2) encapsulant package integrity, (3) PV circuit integrity or (4) electrical isolation as the quantitative criterion for assessing module potential service life rather than simply using module power loss

Examining Research Integrity

Research integrity issues fill the academic news, and include plagiarism, data falsification and image manipulation. Integrity violations are complex because of the gray zones between where bad practice ends and genuine malpractice begin. No real consensus exists about the boundaries, even though many people have strong opinions. The goal of this panel is to engage in a scholarly discussion about integrity issues using specific examples drawn from the book “Quantifying Research Integrity” (Seadle, 2017)

Quantifying floodplain health in the contiguous United States using an index of integrity

2022 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Despite the numerous hydrological, geological, and ecological benefits produced by floodplain landscapes, floodplains continue to be degraded by human activities at a much higher rate than other landscape types. Although this large-scale landscape modification has been widely observed, a comprehensive, national dataset quantifying the degree to which human activities are responsible for this degradation has not previously been evaluated. Floodplain integrity can be defined as the ability of a floodplain to support essential environmental functions that sustain diversity and ecosystem services through geomorphic, hydrologic, and ecological dynamics. In this research, I seek to analyze floodplain integrity at a national scale for the United States by spatially quantifying the impact of anthropogenic stressors on essential floodplain functions. I assess the prevalence of human modifications through widely available geospatial datasets, which I then use to quantify indicators of floodplain health for five essential floodplain functions. The five essential floodplain functions include flood attenuation, groundwater storage, habitat provision, sediment regulation, and organics and solute regulation. Rather than focusing solely on the ecological health within the floodplain, I develop a more comprehensive integrity evaluation by assessing both the biological and hydrogeomorphic functioning ability of the floodplain. I extend a previously established methodology for quantifying floodplain integrity to better understand the impact that human development has had on floodplain health and critical floodplain functions at the national scale. Additionally, I apply this methodology using land use change data for a 60-year period to analyze how land use has impacted floodplain integrity over time. Quantifying the health of spatially explicit floodplain elements will allow for restoration efforts to be targeted to the areas in most desperate need of preservation

Quantitative assessment of floodplain functionality in Colorado using an index of integrity

2019 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Floodplain integrity can be defined as the ability of a floodplain to support essential geomorphic, hydrologic, and ecological functions that maintain biodiversity and ecosystem services. Humans alter floodplain functionality by changing the physical landscape of the floodplain or by altering river flow regimes and subsequent floodplain inundation dynamics. This research evaluates floodplain integrity by assessing the prevalence of anthropogenic modifications to hydrology and landscape. Specifically, the objectives of this research are to: 1) develop a methodology to assess floodplain integrity using geospatial datasets available for large spatial scales; and 2) use the methodology to evaluate spatial patterns of floodplain integrity in the state of Colorado. To accomplish these objectives, I evaluated the critical floodplain functions of attenuating floods, storing groundwater, regulating sediment, providing habitat, and regulating organics and solutes. At present, this work is the first to quantify the integrity of specific floodplain functions instead of measuring floodplain health solely by ecological integrity. I applied the index of floodplain integrity methodology in the state of Colorado to analyze the integrity of each of the five floodplain functions and the aggregated overall integrity. In Colorado, overall floodplain integrity decreased as stream order increased above third order streams. Floodplain integrity was also lower in floodplains that intersected urban areas than those that did not, which indicates the index of floodplain integrity captured the adverse relationship between development and floodplain health established in literature. By quantifying anthropogenic reductions to floodplain functionality at broad spatial scales, the index of floodplain integrity can help target restoration efforts towards the most affected functions and areas

Watching But Unseen? An Evaluation of the Transparency of the Online Presence of Integrity Commissioners in Ontario

The expected benefits of transparency in government, such as increased public engagement and trust, are well established. Transparency also enables a better accounting of elected officials by the public, but this accounting depends on having rules in place and someone responsible for enforcing those rules. The Ontario government took steps to provide this for local governments in Ontario when it permitted municipalities to create codes of conduct and to hire a municipal Integrity Commissioner to enforce those codes. However, the ultimate accountability is delivered by the voting public during municipal elections and, in order for this political accountability regime to be effective, it is essential that the public be informed of the activities of Integrity Commissioners so that they can make informed decisions at the ballot box. This research project assesses the online presence of Integrity Commissioners in Ontario’s largest municipalities to answer the question: How transparent are municipal Integrity Commissioners in Ontario? By quantifying the transparency of their activities, the research seeks to establish the extent to which Integrity Commissioners are likely to contribute to the expected benefits of transparency. It is found that the transparency varies widely across municipalities, and as a result the contribution that Integrity Commissioners can be expected to make in their communities remains unclear. Recommendations are made for a standardization of the onlin

Hyaluronic acid alters vessel behavior in CXCL12-treated HUVECs

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a key component of the extracellular matrix known for absorbing water, swelling, and altering solid stress of tumors. HA’s anionic behavior may provide important biochemical effects toward tumor progression as well. Tumors obtain nutrients by relying on signaling molecules such as CXCL12 to recruit blood vessels and promote vessel leakage. Recent work suggests that additional positively-charged residues on CXCL12’s β and γ isoforms cause different biochemical functionality compared to the well-studied α isoform. These studies aimed to determine whether the presence of HA in a tumor’s microenvironment could alter the relative response strength of CXCL12’s various isoforms on blood vessel sprouting and apparent vascular permeability. The vessel microenvironment was modeled using a 3-channel microfluidic device with Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVECs) in the outer channels forming monolayers against a 3D collagen or collagen/HA matrix in the center channel. HUVECs were cultured with media containing recombinant CXCL12 (α, β or γ). Results show that total HUVEC sprouting area follows an α>β>γ trend in isoform-treated HUVECs within a collagen matrix, matching the binding affinity order of CXCL12 to endothelial CXCR4 receptors. The presence of HA decreased overall sprouting response but shifted pro-angiogenic potency towards CXCL12’s γ isoform. Vascular permeability studies also showed an α>β>γ trend for HUVECs in collagen. With HA added, control and α-treated HUVECs became less permeable while γ-treated HUVECs became more permeable. Overall results suggest that an HA-infused collagen matrix facilitates γ isoform binding, leading to a stronger isoform-specific vessel response. Knowing how HA impacts CXCL12 isoform potency on vessels will help in the future design of CXCL12-targeted cancer therapies.The American Heart AssociationInstitute for Materials Research at OSULumley Engineering FundPelotoniaA one-year embargo was granted for this item.Academic Major: Chemical Engineerin

Quantifying stretching and rearrangement in epithelial sheet migration

Although understanding the collective migration of cells, such as that seen in epithelial sheets, is essential for understanding diseases such as metastatic cancer, this motion is not yet as well characterized as individual cell migration. Here we adapt quantitative metrics used to characterize the flow and deformation of soft matter to contrast different types of motion within a migrating sheet of cells. Using a Finite-Time Lyapunov Exponent (FTLE) analysis, we find that - in spite of large fluctuations - the flow field of an epithelial cell sheet is not chaotic. Stretching of a sheet of cells (i.e., positive FTLE) is localized at the leading edge of migration. By decomposing the motion of the cells into affine and non-affine components using the metric D$^{2}_{min}$, we quantify local plastic rearrangements and describe the motion of a group of cells in a novel way. We find an increase in plastic rearrangements with increasing cell densities, whereas inanimate systems tend to exhibit less non-affine rearrangements with increasing density.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in the New Journal of Physics. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at doi:10.1088/1367-2630/15/2/02503

Understanding and Specifying Information Security Needs to Support the Delivery of High Quality Security Services

In this paper we present an approach for specifying and prioritizing information security requirements in organizations. It is important to prioritize security requirements since hundred per cent security is\ud not achievable and the limited resources available should be directed to satisfy the most important ones. We propose to explicitly link security requirements with the organization’s business vision, i.e. to provide business\ud rationale for security requirements. The rationale is then used as a basis for comparing the importance of different security requirements.\ud Furthermore we discuss how to integrate the aforementioned solution concepts into a service level management process for security services, which is an important step in IT Governance. We validate our approach by way of a focus group session