Enhancing accuracy and precision of transparent synthetic soil modelling

Over recent years non-intrusive modelling techniques have been developed to investigate soil-structure interaction problems of increasingly complex geometry. This paper concerns the development of a small-scale, 1 g, modelling technique using a transparent analogue for soil with particle image velocimetry for internal displacement measurement. Larger model geometry achieved in this research using fine-grained transparent synthetic soils has led to an increased need for rigorous photogrammetric correction techniques. A correction framework, based upon a modified version of the pinhole camera model, is presented that corrects for lens and camera movement induced errors as well as scaling from image space to object space. An additional statistical approach is also developed to enhance the system precision, by minimising the impact of increased non-coplanarity between the photogrammetry control plane and the target plane. The enhanced data correction and statistical precision is demonstrated using a case study examining the failure mechanism around a double helical screw pile installed in transparent synthetic soil representative of a soft clay

Progress in single junction microcrystalline silicon solar cells deposited by Hot-Wire CVD

Hot-Wire Chemical Vapor Deposition has led to microcrystalline silicon solar cell efficiencies similar to those obtained with Plasma Enhanced CVD. The light-induced degradation behavior of microcrystalline silicon solar cells critically depends on the properties of their active layer. In the regime close to the transition to amorphous growth (around 60% of amorphous volume fraction), cells incorporating an intrinsic layer with slightly higher crystalline fraction and [220] preferential orientation are stable after more than 7000 h of AM1.5 light soaking. On the contrary, solar cells whose intrinsic layer has a slightly lower crystalline fraction and random or [111] preferential orientation exhibit clear light-induced degradation effects. A revision of the efficiencies of Hot-Wire deposited microcrystalline silicon solar cells is presented and the potential efficiency of this technology is also evaluated

PolyQ Proteins Interfere with Nuclear Degradation of Cytosolic Proteins by Sequestering the Sis1p Chaperone

Dysfunction of protein quality control contributes to the cellular pathology of polyglutamine (polyQ) expansion diseases and other neurodegenerative disorders associated with aggregate deposition. Here we analyzed how polyQ aggregation interferes with the clearance of misfolded proteins by the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). We show in a yeast model that polyQ-expanded proteins inhibit the UPS-mediated degradation of misfolded cytosolic carboxypeptidase Y* fused to green fluorescent protein (GFP) (CG*) without blocking ubiquitylation or proteasome function. Quantitative proteomic analysis reveals that the polyQ aggregates sequester the low-abundant and essential Hsp40 chaperone Sis1p. Overexpression of Sis1p restores CG* degradation. Surprisingly, we find that Sis1p, and its homolog DnaJB1 in mammalian cells, mediates the delivery of misfolded proteins into the nucleus for proteasomal degradation. Sis1p shuttles between cytosol and nucleus, and its cellular level limits the capacity of this quality control pathway. Upon depletion of Sis1p by polyQ aggregation, misfolded proteins are barred from entering the nucleus and form cytoplasmic inclusions