Formation of the physical vapor deposited CdS Cu In,Ga Se2 interface in highly efficient thin film solar cells

We report on the buffer absorber interface formation in highly efficient 14.5 , AM1.5 ZnO CdS Cu In,Ga Se2 solar cells with a physical vapor deposited CdS buffer. For Se decapped Cu In,Ga Se2 CIGSe absorbers we observe sulfur passivation of the CIGSe grain boundaries during CdS growth and at the interface a thermally stimulated formation of a region with a higher band gap than that of the absorber bulk, determining the height of the potential barrier at the CdS CIGSe interface. For air exposed CIGSe samples the grain boundary passivation is impeded by a native oxide adsorbate layer at the CIGSe surface determining the thermal stability of the potential barrier heigh

Strategic Resource Allocation in the Human Brain Supports Cognitive Coordination of Object and Spatial Working Memory

The ability to integrate different types of information (e.g., object identity and spatial orientation) and maintain or manipulate them concurrently in working memory (WM) facilitates the flow of ongoing tasks and is essential for normal human cognition. Research shows that object and spatial information is maintained and manipulated in WM via separate pathways in the brain (object/ventral versus spatial/dorsal). How does the human brain coordinate the activity of different specialized systems to conjoin different types of information? Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate conjunction- versus single-task manipulation of object (compute average color blend) and spatial (compute intermediate angle) information in WM. Object WM was associated with ventral (inferior frontal gyrus, occipital cortex), and spatial WM with dorsal (parietal cortex, superior frontal, and temporal sulci) regions. Conjoined object/spatial WM resulted in intermediate activity in these specialized areas, but greater activity in different prefrontal and parietal areas. Unique to our study, we found lower temporo-occipital activity and greater deactivation in temporal and medial prefrontal cortices for conjunction- versus single-tasks. Using structural equation modeling, we derived a conjunction-task connectivity model that comprises a frontoparietal network with a bidirectional DLPFC-VLPFC connection, and a direct parietal-extrastriate pathway. We suggest that these activation/deactivation patterns reflect efficient resource allocation throughout the brain and propose a new extended version of the biased competition model of WM. Hum Brain Mapp, 2011. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc

Solar Panels String Predictive and Parametric Fault Diagnosis Using Low-Cost Sensors

[EN] This work proposes a method for real-time supervision and predictive fault diagnosis applicable to solar panel strings in real-world installations. It is focused on the detection and parametric isolation of fault symptoms through the analysis of the Voc-Isc curves. The method performs early, systematic, online, automatic, permanent predictive supervision, and diagnosis of a high sampling frequency. It is based on the supervision of predictive electrical parameters easily accessible by the design of its architecture, whose detection and isolation precedes with an adequate margin of maneuver, to be able to alert and stop by means of automatic disconnection the degradation phenomenon and its cumulative effect causing the development of a future irrecoverable failure. Its architecture design is scalable and integrable in conventional photovoltaic installations. It emphasizes the use of low-cost technology such as the ESP8266 module, ASC712-5A, and FZ0430 sensors and relay modules. The method is based on data acquisition with the ESP8266 module, which is sent over the internet to the computer where a SCADA system (iFIX V6.5) is installed, using the Modbus TCP/IP and OPC communication protocols. Detection thresholds are initially obtained experimentally by applying inductive shading methods on specific solar panels.García Moreno, E.; Ponluisa, N.; Quiles Cucarella, E.; Zotovic Stanisic, R.; Gutiérrez, SC. (2022). Solar Panels String Predictive and Parametric Fault Diagnosis Using Low-Cost Sensors. Sensors. 22(1):1-29. https://doi.org/10.3390/s2201033212922

The Disunity of Consciousness

It is commonplace for both philosophers and cognitive scientists to express their allegiance to the "unity of consciousness". This is the claim that a subject’s phenomenal consciousness, at any one moment in time, is a single thing. This view has had a major influence on computational theories of consciousness. In particular, what we call single-track theories dominate the literature, theories which contend that our conscious experience is the result of a single consciousness-making process or mechanism in the brain. We argue that the orthodox view is quite wrong: phenomenal experience is not a unity, in the sense of being a single thing at each instant. It is a multiplicity, an aggregate of phenomenal elements, each of which is the product of a distinct consciousness-making mechanism in the brain. Consequently, cognitive science is in need of a multi-track theory of consciousness; a computational model that acknowledges both the manifold nature of experience, and its distributed neural basis

Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns

In the fall of 1994, the publication of Herrnstein and Murray's book The Bell Curve sparked a new round of debate about the meaning of intelligence test scores and the nature of intelligence. The debate was characterized by strong assertions as well as by strong feelings. Unfortunately, those assertions often revealed serious misunderstandings of what has (and has not) been demonstrated by scientific research in this field. Although a great deal is now known, the issues remain complex and in many cases still unresolved. Another unfortunate aspect of the debate was that many participants made little effort to distinguish scientific issues from political ones. Research findings were often assessed not so much on their merits or their scientific standing as on their supposed political implications. In such a climate, individuals who wish to make their own judgments find it hard to know what to believe. Reviewing the intelligence debate at its meeting of November 1994, the Board of Scientific Affairs (BSA) of the American Psychological Association (APA) concluded that there was urgent need for an authoritative report on these issues--one that all sides could use as a basis for discussion. Acting by unanimous vote, BSA established a Task Force charged with preparing such a report. Ulri

Has education lost sight of children?

The reflections presented in this chapter are informed by clinical and personal experiences of school education in the UK. There are many challenges for children and young people in the modern education system and for the professionals who support them. In the UK, there are significant gaps between the highly selective education provided to those who pay privately for it and to the majority of those educated in the state-funded system. Though literacy rates have improved around the world, many children, particularly boys, do not finish their education for reasons such as boredom, behavioural difficulties or because education does not ‘pay’. Violence, bullying, and sexual harassment are issues faced by many children in schools and there are disturbing trends of excluding children who present with behavioural problems at school whose origins are not explored. Excluded children are then educated with other children who may also have multiple problems which often just make the situation worse. The experience of clinicians suggests that school-related mental health problems are increasing in severity. Are mental health services dealing with the consequences of an education system that is not meeting children’s needs? An education system that is testing- and performance-based may not be serving many children well if it is driving important decisions about them at increasingly younger ages. Labelling of children and setting them on educational career paths can occur well before they reach secondary schools, limiting potential very early on in their developmental trajectory. Furthermore, the emphasis at school on testing may come at the expense of creativity and other forms of intelligence, which are also valuable and important. Meanwhile the employment marketplace requires people with widely different skills, with an emphasis on innovation, creativity, and problem solving. Is education losing sight of the children it is educating

Visual similarity in masking and priming: The critical role of task relevance

Cognitive scientists use rapid image sequences to study both the emergence of conscious perception (visual masking) and the unconscious processes involved in response preparation (masked priming). The present study asked two questions: (1) Does image similarity influence masking and priming in the same way? (2) Are similarity effects in both tasks governed by the extent of feature overlap in the images or only by task-relevant features? Participants in Experiment 1 classified human faces using a single dimension even though the faces varied in three dimensions (emotion, race, sex). Abstract geometric shapes and colors were tested in the same way in Experiment 2. Results showed that similarity reduced the visibility of the target in the masking task and increased response speed in the priming task, pointing to a double-dissociation between the two tasks. Results also showed that only task-relevant (not objective) similarity influenced masking and priming, implying that both tasks are influenced from the beginning by intentions of the participant. These findings are interpreted within the framework of a reentrant theory of visual perception. They imply that intentions can influence object formation prior to the separation of vision for perception and vision for action

Perspectives on dialogue: Introduction to this special issue

We briefly summarize the papers in this volume, draw attention to the variety of perspectives that they bring to the subject of dialogue, identify a number of common themes, and conclude with a discussion of directions for further research

Neuroaesthetics: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Aesthetic Experience

This research was supported by Grant AAEE124/09 from the Govern de les Illes Balears, Spain