Development of amorphous silicon solar cells with plasmonic light scattering

This paper reports the result of simulation and fabrication of the optical effects of metallic nano-particle arrays within amorphous silicon thin-films. A finite-difference time domain approach is used to design and model nano-particle arrays within opto-electronic models of thin-film amorphous silicon. An increase in optical scattering and localized surface plasmon resonance is observed, resulting in an increase in power absorption within the material active region and a reduction in optical reflection from the film surface. It is shown that this enhancement in optical performance depends on the particle size, shape, position within the structure and proximity to the metallic back reflector. Process development of metal-island films on silicon and glass, followed by the fabrication and measurement of amorphous silicon P-I-N devices featuring plasmonic nano-particles is demonstrated; showing an enhancement in-keeping with results achieved using simulation

Which patient takes centre stage? Placing patient voices in animal research

This is the author accepted manuscript . The final version is available from Springer via the DOI in this recordWellcome Trus

The evolution of harm: effect of sexual conflicts and population size

Conflicts of interest between mates can lead to the evolution of male traits reducing female fitness and to coevolution between the sexes. The rate of adaptation and counter-adaptation is constrained by the intensity of selection and its efficiency, which depends on drift and genetic variability. This leads to the largely untested prediction that coevolutionary adaptations such as those driven by sexual conflict should evolve faster in large populations where the response to selection is stronger and sexual selection is more intense. We test this using the bruchid beetle Callosobruchus maculatus, a species with well documented male harm. Whilst most experimental evolution studies remove sexual conflicts, we reintroduce sexual conflict in populations where it has been experimentally removed. Both population size and standing genetic variability were manipulated in a factorial experimental design. After 90 generations of relaxed conflict (monogamy), the reintroduction of sexual conflicts for 30 generations favoured males that harmed females and females more resistant to the genital damage inflicted by males. Large population size rather than high initial genetic variation allowed males to evolve faster and become more harmful. Sexual selection thus creates conditions where males benefit from harming females and this selection is more effective in larger populations

Chapter 9 Which Patient Takes Centre Stage?

The growth of personalised medicine and patient partnerships in biomedical research are reshaping both the emotional and material intersections between human patients and animal research. Through tracing the creative work of patients, publics, scientists, clinicians, artists, film-makers, and campaigning groups this chapter explores how ‘patient voices’ are being rearticulated and represented around animal research. The figure of ‘the patient’ has been a powerful actor in arguments around animal research, mostly ‘spoken for’ by formal organisations, especially in publicity material making ethical justifications for the need and funding of medical research. Here, patient voices make corporeal needs legible, gather expectations and resources, and provide the horizon for embodying future hopes. However, the accessibility of digital media, alongside local institutional experiments in openness, is creating alternative spaces for voicing patient interfaces with animal research. On research establishment websites, and elsewhere, patients’ perspectives are emerging in short films, taking up positions as narrators, tour guides, and commentators, inviting the public to follow them into these previously inaccessible spaces. The embodied experience of patients, sometimes severely affected by the current absences in biomedical research, are used to authorise their presence in these places, and allow them to ask questions of animal researchers. The films are powerful and emotional vehicles for voicing patient experiences and opening up animal research. They also refigure the affective responsibilities around animal research, resituating a public debate around ethics within the body of the patient. The future expectations personified in the abstract figure of the patient, are rendered turbulent in the ambiguous corporeal encounter between human and animals undergoing similar experiences of suffering

Sexual conflict in the Bean Weevil, Callosobruchus maculatus.

This study used the bean weevil, Callosobruchus maculatus, to examine the functions, causal relationships and life-history consequences of aspects of reproductive morphology and behaviour within the framework of sexual conflict theory. In Chapter 2, the gross genital anatomy of male and female C. maculatus are described. Sharp cuticular spines on the male intromittent organ unfurl within the female genital tract during copulation. Chapter 3 established a causal relationship between the male intromittent and damage to the female genital tract. The extent of genital damage varied among once-mated females and increased with each additional copulation. Chapter 4 investigated the 'function of female mate-kicking behaviour, whereby females kick their mates during copulation. Females prevented from kicking had longer copulations and more genital damage than females permitted to kick, suggesting that mate-kicking has evolved as a counter-adaptation to ameliorate the associated costs. The effect of mate-kicking on two female post-copulatory traits linked to both male and female fitness were examined in Chapter 5. No measurable effects due to mate-kicking were found on either the immediate oviposition rate or the remating interval of females following an initial copulation. These findings indicate that males do not appear to induce favourable changes in female post-copulatory behaviour through the imposition of longer copulations or increased genital damage. In Chapter 6, the effect of varying exposure to males on female fitness traits was examined. With oviposition rates partially standardised across mating frequencies, remated females had shorter lifespans than once-mated females, but the relationship between copulation frequency and lifespan was not linear. With standardised gregarious living conditions, female reproductive output increased with greater opportunities to mate. Thus, despite the apparent longevity cost associated with copulation, females elevate their fitness through multiple mating and increased exposure to males. The potential for non-mating exposure to males to reduce female fitness traits was also demonstrated. Finally, Chapter 7 assesses the evidence for a conflict between the sexes in C. maculatus over male damaging tactics

Epilepsy-specific patient-reported outcome measures of children's health-related quality of life: A systematic review of measurement properties.

This is the final version. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.OBJECTIVE: To identify and appraise published evidence of the measurement properties for epilepsy-specific patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) of children's health-related quality of life (HRQoL). METHODS: We searched multiple databases for studies evaluating the measurement properties of English-language epilepsy-specific PROMs of children's HRQoL. We assessed the methodological quality using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) guidance. We extracted data about the content validity, construct validity, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, proxy reliability, responsiveness, and precision, and assessed the measurement properties with reference to standardized criteria. RESULTS: We identified 27 papers that evaluated 11 PROMs. Methodological quality was variable. Construct validity, test-retest reliability, and internal consistency were more commonly assessed. Quality of Life in Childhood Epilepsy (QoLCE) questionnaires are parent-reported and evaluated more than other PROMs; QoLCE-55 has good and replicated evidence for structural and construct validity and internal consistency. Health-Related Quality of Life Measure for Children with Epilepsy (CHEQoL) has both child and parent-reported versions and good evidence of content, structural, and construct validity. SIGNIFICANCE: This review identified two leading candidate epilepsy-specific PROMs for measuring health-related quality of life in children. Establishing evidence of the responsiveness of PROMs is a priority to help the interpretation of meaningful change scores.National Institute for Health Research (NIHR

The Inter-Bristle Pressure Filed in a Large-Scale Brush Seal

Brush seals promise improvements to the widely used labyrinth seal in regulating turbomachinery leakages. Enhanced resistance to the flow is provided by a static ring of densely packed fine wire bristles that are angled in the direction of rotation and flex to accommodate rotor excursions. A large-scale brush seal was constructed to study the leakage characteristics in direct relation to the pressure field within and surrounding the bristle pack for multiple clearance conditions, therefore developing the understanding of brush seal fluid dynamic behaviour. The governing parameter controlling leakage behaviour transitioned from pressure ratio for a large clearance, to pressure load for a line-on-line configuration. In all cases, leakage flow converged to an asymptotic value once maximum levels of bristle blow-down and pack compaction were attained. For both clearance configurations, this occurred at a pressure ratio corresponding to that at which axial distributions of pressure converged; equivalent behaviour was noted for the line-on-line configuration with pressure drop. Comparatively small changes were experienced in leakage behaviour and to the inter-bristle pressure field with increasing pressure drop for the line-on-line brush seal. This indicated that brush seal performance is more influenced by changes in bristle blow-down than bristle pack compaction.<br/

Dynamic Characterization of an Adaptive Film-Riding Seal

Shaft seals control the leakage of fluid between areas of high pressure and low pressure around rotating components inside turbomachinery. Static seals are often subject to damaging rubs with the shaft, caused by assembly misalignments and rotordynamic vibrations during operation. Adaptive seals aim to reduce leakage flows whilst minimizing wear. The Film Riding Pressure Actuated Leaf Seal (FRPALS) is one such design which utilizes a large installation clearance and is blown down towards the shaft under pressure.This paper presents a numerical model which can be used in the design and development of adaptive shaft seals, validated by experimental data from the literature. The model uses a modified version of the Reynolds equation to predict the dynamic, frequency-dependent stiffness and damping coefficients of the fluid film. The dynamic coefficients have been solved for different operational clearances and pressure differences to generate coefficient maps. These maps have been incorporated into a blow down model with compliant mechanical leaves to predict the transient translational and angular displacement paths of the FRPALS when subject to an increasing pressure drop.The blow down model has been compared against experimental measurements collected from a specially designed test facility for the characterization of shaft seal performance. Eddy current probes were used to measure the displacement paths of the FRPALS with the experimental values showing that the model can accurately predict the dynamic movement of the seal when subject to a pressure difference