Design of fibre reinforced PV concepts for building integrated applications

Fibre reinforced polymers present an interesting encapsulation medium for PV-modules. Glass fibres can provide increased strength and stiffness to thin polymer layers overcoming the brittleness and limited deformability of glass-panes. Glass fibre reinforced polymers allows for transparency over a broad range of the solar spectrum while the material properties and integral production processes create possibilities for novel product concepts with embedded PV technology. To explore such possibilities, innovative design methods were used to design novel PV product concepts for applications in the build environment.\ud In our paper three conceptual designs are presented; (1) a thin film module with an adjoining interconnection system functioning as structural element for geodetic roofing structures, (2) a PV lamella with single-axis tracking utilizing a linear concentration effect caused by the geometry of the product and the materials applied, and (3) a prepreg PV-material which allows for easy shaping during the production of PV modules with complex geometries. Each concept employs a specific PV technology and demonstrates a possible application aimed at a specific market. In this way we show the potential of integration of PV technology in fibre reinforced composites. The paper will be illustrated by concept renderings

B Meson Transitions into Higher Mass Charmed Resonances

We use QCD sum rules to estimate the universal form factors describing the semileptonic B decays into excited charmed resonances, such as the $1^-$ and $2^-$ states $D_1^{*}$ and $D_2^{*}$ belonging to the $s_\ell^P={3/2}^-$ heavy quark doublet, and the $2^-$ and $3^-$ states $D_2^{*\prime}$ and $D_3$ belonging to the s_\ell^P={5\2}^- doublet.Comment: LaTex, 14 pages, 1 figur

The catalytic oxidation of organic contaminants in a packed bed reactor

The catalytic oxidation of several hydrocarbons was studied over noble metal and metal oxide catalysts. A fast empirical method was developed to determine the minimum operating temperature required to guarantee complete conversion of the hydrocarbon.\ud \ud The influence of the operating parameters such as the inlet concentration and residence time, as well as the chemical character of the component to be oxidized, have been investigated. The results can be described satisfactorily by a simple isothermal, plug flow reactor model and first-order reaction kinetics. In the case of simultaneous oxidation of different components a significant mixture effect was not observed. The presence of water in the feed did significantly inhibit the oxidation of alkanes.\ud \ud Of the applied catalysts, Pt was the most effective for the combustion of the alkenes, whereas Pd showed a higher activity for the oxidation of alkanes

Meson-baryon couplings and the F/DF/D ratio from QCD sum rules

Motivated by the recent work on the calculation of the $\pi NN$ coupling constant using QCD sum rule beyond the chiral limit, we construct the corresponding sum rules for the couplings, $\eta NN$, $\pi \Xi\Xi$, $\eta \Xi\Xi$, $\pi \Sigma \Sigma$ and $\eta \Sigma \Sigma$. In constructing the $\eta$-baryon sum rules, we use the second moment of the $\eta$ wave function, which we obtain from the pion wave function after SU(3) rotation. In the SU(3) symmetric limit, we can identify the term responsible for the $F/D$ ratio in the OPE, which after the sum rule analysis gives $F/D\sim 0.2$, a factor of 3 smaller than from other studies. We also present a qualitative analysis including the SU(3) breaking terms.Comment: 24 pages including 6 figures, slightly revised, to appear in Nuclear Physics

Blocked All-Pairs Shortest Paths Algorithm on Intel Xeon Phi KNL Processor: A Case Study

Manycores are consolidating in HPC community as a way of improving performance while keeping power efficiency. Knights Landing is the recently released second generation of Intel Xeon Phi architecture. While optimizing applications on CPUs, GPUs and first Xeon Phi's has been largely studied in the last years, the new features in Knights Landing processors require the revision of programming and optimization techniques for these devices. In this work, we selected the Floyd-Warshall algorithm as a representative case study of graph and memory-bound applications. Starting from the default serial version, we show how data, thread and compiler level optimizations help the parallel implementation to reach 338 GFLOPS.Comment: Computer Science - CACIC 2017. Springer Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 79

Lower extremity vascular disease

Purpose: We performed a systematic review to assess (1) to what extent Incident Reporting Systems (IRS) on the adult ICU meet the criteria of the WHO Draft Guidelines for Adverse Event Reporting and Learning Systems, (2) to what extent the IRSs comply with the four aspects of the iterative quality loop and (3) whether IRSs have led to improvement measures in clinical practice. Data sources: The authors searched multiple electronic databases from 1966 until June 26th 2014. Study Selection: Studies were included if they reported incident reporting systems on the adult ICU. Data Extraction: Data on study design, characteristics of the incident reporting system, implementation, feedback and improvement measures were collected using structured data extraction forms. Results of data synthesis: A total of 2098 studies were identified and 36 studies reported IRSs on the adult ICU. Studies were divided into: ICU specific IRSs and general IRSs. Items of the WHO checklist were assessed and categorized into the four phases of the iterative quality loop. Conclusion: None of the IRSs completely fulfilled the WHO checklist criteria. With respect to the iterative loop, data input and data collection are well established but not much attention was given to analyzing incidents and to give feedback. This resulted in an administrative report system, rather than the much desired instrument for change of practice and increase of quality as an IRS can only effectively contribute to improve patient safety and quality of care if more attention is given to analyzing incidents and feedback.Perioperative Medicine: Efficacy, Safety and Outcom