Blockchain-Based Distributed Trust and Reputation Management Systems: A Survey

Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs), like Blockchain, are characterized by features such as transparency, traceability, and security by design. These features make the adoption of Blockchain attractive to enhance information security, privacy, and trustworthiness in very different contexts. This paper provides a comprehensive survey and aims at analyzing and assessing the use of Blockchain in the context of Distributed Trust and Reputation Management Systems (DTRMS). The analysis includes academic research as well as initiatives undertaken in the business domain. The paper defines two taxonomies for both Blockchain and DTRMS and applies a Formal Concept Analysis. Such an approach allowed us to identify the most recurrent and stable features in the current scientific landscape and several important implications among the two taxonomies. The results of the analysis have revealed significant trends and emerging practices in the current implementations that have been distilled into recommendations to guide Blockchain's adoption in DTRMS systems

Pyrene- benzo[1,2,5]thiadiazole based conjugated polymers for application in BHJ solar cells

Ethylhexyloxy-functionalised pyrene (PEH) was prepared and copolymerised with both dithienyl-benzo[c]-[1], [2], [5]thiadiazole and dibithiophenyl-benzo[c]-[1], [2], [5]thiadiazole via a Stille coupling polymerisation method to yield PPEH-DTBT-8 and PPEH-DT2BT-8, respectively. A comparative study was conducted to assess the impact of substituting thiophene for bithiophene repeat units upon the resulting properties of the conjugated polymers. PPEH-DT2BT-8 which has bithiophene spacers between pyrene and benzothiadiazole repeat units, exhibited a narrower optical and electrochemical band gap relative to PPEH-DTBT-8; a consequence of the incorporating bithiophene spacer units which promote intramolecular charge transfer between the electron donating and electron accepting moieties. Both PPEH-DTBT-8 and PPEH-DT2BT-8 showed deep HOMO levels of -5.54 and -5.50 eV, respectively. The polymers possess good thermal stabilities with degradation temperatures in excess of 310 °C. The photovoltaic performance of the two polymers was studied by fabricating bulk heterojunction (BHJ) photovoltaic devices using PC70BM as the acceptor. PPEH-DTBT-8 and PPEH-DT2BT-8 demonstrated efficiencies of 0.33 and 1.83%, respectively. The higher efficiency of PPEH-DT2BT-8 can be attributed to vastly improved FF and Jsc values

Energy efficient cooperative coalition selection in cluster-based capillary networks for CMIMO IoT systems

The Cooperative Multiple-input-multiple-output (CMIMO) scheme has been suggested to extend the lifetime of cluster heads (CHs) in cluster-based capillary networks in Internet of Things (IoT) systems. However, the CMIMO scheme introduces extra energy overhead to cooperative devices and further reduces the lifetime of these devices. In this paper, we first articulate the problem of cooperative coalition’s selection for CMIMO scheme to extend the average battery capacity among the whole network, and then propose to apply the quantum-inspired particle swarm optimization (QPSO) to select the optimum cooperative coalitions of each hop in the routing path. Simulation results proved that the proposed QPSO-based cooperative coalition’s selection scheme could select the optimum cooperative sender and receiver devices in every hop dynamically and outperform the virtual MIMO scheme with a fixed number of cooperative devices

Pyrene–benzothiadiazole-based copolymers for application in photovoltaic devices

The preparation and characterisation of four narrow band gap pyrene-benzothiadiazole based alternating copolymers is presented. An investigation of the impact of attaching different solubilising groups to the pyrene repeat units on the optical, electrochemical and thermal properties of the resulting materials was undertaken along with studies on the aggregation of polymer chains in the solid state. Unsurprisingly, polymers which had the smaller 2-ethylhexyl chains attached to the pyrene units (PPEH-DTBT and PPEH-DTffBT) displayed lower molecular weights relative to polymers with larger 2-hexyldecyl substituents (PPHD-DTBT and PPHD-DTffBT). Despite this, the 2-ethylhexyl substituted polymers displayed narrower optical band gaps relative to their analogous 2-hexyldecyl substituted polymers. Of all polymers synthesised, PPEH-DTBT displayed the lowest optical band gap (1.76 eV) in the series. All polymers display degradation temperatures in excess of 300°C. Polymers with smaller alkyl chains on the pyrene units display shallower HOMO levels which could be due to increased intramolecular charge transfer between the donor and acceptor units. Preliminary investigations on bulk heterojunction solar cells with a device structure ITO/PEDOT:PSS/Polymer:PC70BM/Ca/Al were undertaken. Polymer/PC70BM blend ratios of 1/3 were used in these studies and have indicated that PPEH-DTBT displayed the highest efficiency with a PCE of 1.86 %

Polymer-based solar cells having an active area of 1.6 cm2 fabricated via spray coating

We demonstrate the fabrication of polymersolar cells in which both a PEDOT:PSS hole transport and a PCDTBT:PC71BM photoactive layer are deposited by spray-casting. Two device geometries are explored, with devices having a pixel area of 165 mm2 attaining a power conversion efficiency of 3.7%. Surface metrology indicates that the PEDOT:PSS and PCDTBT:PC71BM layers have a roughness of 2.57 nm and 1.18 nm over an area of 100 μm2. Light beam induced current mapping reveals fluctuations in current generation efficiency over length-scales of ∼2 mm, with the average photocurrent being 75% of its maximum value

Mapping genetic determinants of host susceptibility to Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infection in mice.

Background: P. aeruginosa is one of the top three causes of opportunistic human bacterial infections. The remarkable variability in the clinical outcomes of this infection is thought to be associated with genetic predisposition. However, the genes underlying host susceptibility to P. aeruginosa infection are still largely unknown. Results: As a step towards mapping these genes, we applied a genome wide linkage analysis approach to a mouse model. A large F2 intercross population, obtained by mating P. aeruginosa-resistant C3H/HeOuJ, and susceptible A/J mice, was used for quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping. The F2 progenies were challenged with a P. aeruginosa clinical strain and monitored for the survival time up to 7 days post-infection, as a disease phenotype associated trait. Selected phenotypic extremes of the F2 distribution were genotyped with high-density single nucleotide polymorphic (SNP) markers, and subsequently QTL analysis was performed. A significant locus was mapped on chromosome 6 and was named P. aeruginosa infection resistance locus 1 (Pairl1). The most promising candidate genes, including Dok1, Tacr1, Cd207, Clec4f, Gp9, Gata2, Foxp1, are related to pathogen sensing, neutrophils and macrophages recruitment and inflammatory processes. Conclusions: We propose a set of genes involved in the pathogenesis of P. aeruginosa infection that may be explored to complement human studie

Preparation and photovoltaic properties of pyrene-thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione-based donor-acceptor polymers

Four new donor-acceptor conjugated copolymers, containing pyrene moieties flanked by thienyl or bithienyl groups as a donor units and thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione (TPD) as acceptor units, were successfully prepared via a direct arylation polymerisation method. While all polymers prepared had 2-ethylhexyloxy-substituents on the pyrene repeat units, two different alkylsusbtituents (octyl or 4-hexylphenyl groups) were attached to their TPD moieties. The influence of these different substituents as well as the number of thienyl units linking the pyrene and TPD units along polymer chains on the photophysical, electronic and photovoltaic properties of these materials was investigated. All polymers displayed good thermal stability up to 315°C. The optical band gap of the four polymers, PPEHDT-TPDO, PPEHDT-TPDHP, PPEHDT2-TPDO and PPEHDT2-TPDHP, were estimated to be 2.00, 2.06, 1.94 and 1.91 eV, respectively. Polymers that possessed a single thiophene unit attached to the pyrene unit, PPEHDT-TPDO and PPEHDTTPDHP, displayed deeper HOMO levels compared to those with bithiophene units, PPEHDT2- TPDO and PPEHDT2-TPDHP. Photovoltaic devices were fabricated from all polymers. PPEHDT2-TPDO boasted the highest efficiency with a PCE (2.06 %), a FF of 53.07 %, a Jsc of 4.66 mA/cm2 and a Voc of 0.83 V

Glucose tolerance female-specific QTL mapped in collaborative cross mice

Type-2 diabetes (T2D) is a complex metabolic disease characterized by impaired glucose tolerance. Despite environmental high risk factors, host genetic background is a strong componen t of T2D development. Herein, novel highly genetically diverse strains of collaborative cross (CC) lines from mice were assessed to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with variations of glucose-tolerance response. In total, 501 mice of 58 CC lines were maintained on high-fat (42 % fat) diet for 12 weeks. Thereafter, an intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test (IPGTT) was performed for 180 min. Subsequently, the values of Area under curve for the glucose at zero and 180 min (AUC 0−180 ), were measured, and used for QTL mapping. Heritability and coefficient of variations in glucose tolerance (CVg) were calculated. One-way analysis of variation was significant (P  <  0.001) for AUC 0−180 between the CC lines as well between both sexes. Despite Significant variations for both sexes, QTL analysis was significant, only for females, reporting a significant female-sex-dependent QTL (~2.5 Mbp) associated with IPGTT AUC 0−180 trait, located on Chromosome 8 (32–34.5 Mbp, containing 51 genes). Gene browse revealed QTL for body weight/size, genes involved in immune system, and two main protein-coding genes involved in the Glucose homeostasis, Mboat4 and Leprotl1. Heritability and coefficient of genetic variance (CVg) were 0.49 and 0.31 for females, while for males, these values 0.34 and 0.22, respectively. Our findings demonstrate the roles of genetic factors controlling glucose tolerance, which significantly differ between sexes requiring independent studies for females and males toward T2D prevention and therapy

Achieving over 11% power conversion efficiency in PffBT4T-2OD-based ternary polymer solar cells with enhanced open-circuit-voltage and suppressed charge recombination

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd Fabricating ternary solar cells (TSCs) is a promising strategy to improve the power conversion efficiency of organic photovoltaics without introducing sophisticated processing procedures. We report in this work high efficiency TSCs with the maximum PCE over 11% by introducing a medium band gap conjugated polymer PCDTBT8 into the PffBT4T-2OD:PC 71 BM binary photovoltaic system. Morphological investigation shows that the third component PCDTBT8 locates at the interface between PffBT4T-2OD and PC 71 BM without disrupting the crystallization of PffBT4T-2OD to maintain decent charge mobility, and loosens the fullerene aggregation networks to facilitate exciton dissociation. The efficient Förster energy transfer from PCDTBT8 to PffBT4T-2OD enables the ternary devices to retain a high short-circuit current density despite the slightly decreased light absorption. Device physics studies suggest that the addition of PCDTBT8 can enhance the built-in voltage, prolong the carrier lifetime, reduce the defect density and suppress the trap-assisted charge recombination, leading to an improved FF and V OC to enhance the efficiency of ternary devices