Ultra-conformal drawn-on-skin electronics for multifunctional motion artifact-free sensing and point-of-care treatment

An accurate extraction of physiological and physical signals from human skin is crucial for health monitoring, disease prevention, and treatment. Recent advances in wearable bioelectronics directly embedded to the epidermal surface are a promising solution for future epidermal sensing. However, the existing wearable bioelectronics are susceptible to motion artifacts as they lack proper adhesion and conformal interfacing with the skin during motion. Here, we present ultra-conformal, customizable, and deformable drawn-on-skin electronics, which is robust to motion due to strong adhesion and ultra-conformality of the electronic inks drawn directly on skin. Electronic inks, including conductors, semiconductors, and dielectrics, are drawn on-demand in a freeform manner to develop devices, such as transistors, strain sensors, temperature sensors, heaters, skin hydration sensors, and electrophysiological sensors. Electrophysiological signal monitoring during motion shows drawn-on-skin electronics' immunity to motion artifacts. Additionally, electrical stimulation based on drawn-on-skin electronics demonstrates accelerated healing of skin wounds. Designing efficient wearable bioelectronics for health monitoring, disease prevention, and treatment, remains a challenge. Here, the authors demonstrate an ultra-conformal, customizable and deformable drawn-on-skin electronics which is robust to motion artifacts and resistant to physical damage

The role of earnout financing on the valuation effects of global diversification

This article examines the impact of earnout financing on the value of acquiring firms engaged in cross-border acquisitions (CBAs), using a dataset of UK, US, Canadian and Australian firms from 1992 to 2012. The results show that firms initiating international business operations via earnout-financed CBAs enhance their value more than acquirers in (a) domestic acquisitions and (b) remaining CBAs by established multinational corporations (MNCs). Our findings demonstrate the superiority of earnout financing in CBAs announced by acquirers that have no prior international business experience. The results are robust to the firms’ endogenous choice to diversify globally and to the use of earnout financing. We contend that earnouts contribute to the reduction of valuation risk faced by firms acquiring a foreign target firm for the first time. Our empirical findings contribute to the existing debate on the merit of international expansion through CBAs and the role of earnout contingent payment

Mutual funds: Management styles, social responsibility, performance and efficiency

The mutual fund industry represents a substantial part of global financial markets with approximately 20 percent invested in mutual funds. Mutual funds offer a simple and easy-to-understand way to invest either into stocks or fixed income products, both for retail and institutional investors. This chapter provides an overview of the literature on the performance of actively and passively managed mutual funds with special emphasis on socially responsible funds. First, the chapter offers insights into the mutual fund industry worldwide and discusses the characteristics of active and passive management. Then the chapter discusses a prominent management style—SRI. The final sections review the efficiency of the mutual fund industry, performance measurements, and sources of returns and outperformance

Investigation of cell-level potential-induced degradation mechanisms on perovskite, dye-sensitized and organic photovoltaics

The study focuses on the effect of bias voltage degradation or Potential Induced Degradation (PID) on the efficiency of perovskite (PSCs), dye-sensitized (DSSCs) and organic (OPVs) solar cells. For the PID study, voltage-depended and time-depended degradation tests have been carried out at solar cell level; the cells were fabricated and tested in the same conditions. Furthermore, the solar cells were exposed to both, annealing and cooling tests in order tp highlight the various PID characteristics. Thus, the mechanisms induced during the PID degradation were thoroughly investigated. Results revealed that DSSCs are far more vulnerable to voltage degradation than other solar cell technologies. The current work illustrates that OPV solar cells can be considered as voltage durable compared to PSCs and DSSCs ones. OPV solar cells lost 23% of their initial efficiency whereas PSC and DSSC cells were entirely degraded after the application of 5.5 V and 2.5 V voltage respectively. Furthermore, in contrast to OPV, DSSCs and PSCs did not exhibit charging effect when a 5 V voltage was applied. © 2019 International Solar Energy Societ

Bending tests of structural stainless steel circular hollow sections

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