Quantitative chemical analysis of perovskite deposition using spin coating

Lead and halide ion compositions of spin coated organo-lead halide perovskite films have been quantified using ion chromatography (IC) and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) using perovskite films manufactured by 5 different researchers (3 replicates per treatment) to monitor variability between researchers and individual researcher reproducibility. Planar and mesoporous TiO2-coated glass substrates have been studied along with tribromide (CH3NH3PbBr3), triiodide (CH3NH3PbI3) and mixed halide (CH3NH3PbI3�xClx) perovskite films. The data show low yields of spin coated perovskite material (ca. 1%) and preferential deposition of I� over Cl� in mixed halide films

Factors related to discontinued clinic attendance by patients with podoconiosis in southern Ethiopia: a qualitative study

Background Podoconiosis is a lymphoedema of non-infectious cause which results in long-term ill health in affected individuals. Simple, effective treatment is available in certain parts of Ethiopia, but evidence indicates that not all patients continue collecting treatment supplies from clinic sites once started. We used qualitative techniques to explore factors related to discontinued attendance at outreach clinics of a non-government organization in southern Ethiopia. Methods A cross-sectional qualitative study was conducted in four clinic sites through unstructured in-depth interviews, key informant interviews and focus group discussions with the involvement of 88 study subjects. Results Discontinuation of clinic visits is common among podoconiosis patients. The reasons were: remoteness from the clinic sites, unrealistic expectation of ‘special’ aid, worry about increasing stigma, illness and misconceptions about treatment. Conclusions Several of these factors are remediable through community and individual information and education. Appropriate routes to deliver this information must be identified. Certain factors (such as distance to clinic sites and stigma) require substantial expansion of services or liaison with village-level government health services

Constraints on soluble aerosol iron flux to the Southern Ocean at the Last Glacial Maximum.

Relief of iron (Fe) limitation in the Southern Ocean during ice ages, with potentially increased carbon storage in the ocean, has been invoked as one driver of glacial-interglacial atmospheric CO2 cycles. Ice and marine sediment records demonstrate that atmospheric dust supply to the oceans increased by up to an order of magnitude during glacial intervals. However, poor constraints on soluble atmospheric Fe fluxes to the oceans limit assessment of the role of Fe in glacial-interglacial change. Here, using novel techniques, we present estimates of water- and seawater-soluble Fe solubility in Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) atmospheric dust from the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) Dome C and Berkner Island ice cores. Fe solubility was very variable (1-42%) during the interval, and frequently higher than typically assumed by models. Soluble aerosol Fe fluxes to Dome C at the LGM (0.01-0.84 mg m(-2) per year) suggest that soluble Fe deposition to the Southern Ocean would have been ≥10 × modern deposition, rivalling upwelling supply.This work is a contribution to the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA), a joint European Science Foundation/European Commission (EC) scientific programme. This study was funded by a NERC studentship to T.M.C. and E.W.W. is funded by a Royal Society professorship.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms885

Dirac field in topologically massive gravity

We consider a Dirac field coupled minimally to the Mielke-Baekler model of gravity and investigate cosmological solutions in three dimensions. We arrive at a family of solutions which exists even in the limit of vanishing cosmological constant.Comment: 12 pages. Title changed. Conclusion extended. Appendix added. To appear in Gen. Rel. Gra

Longest Common Extensions in Sublinear Space

The longest common extension problem (LCE problem) is to construct a data structure for an input string $T$ of length $n$ that supports LCE$(i,j)$ queries. Such a query returns the length of the longest common prefix of the suffixes starting at positions $i$ and $j$ in $T$. This classic problem has a well-known solution that uses $O(n)$ space and $O(1)$ query time. In this paper we show that for any trade-off parameter $1 \leq \tau \leq n$, the problem can be solved in $O(\frac{n}{\tau})$ space and $O(\tau)$ query time. This significantly improves the previously best known time-space trade-offs, and almost matches the best known time-space product lower bound.Comment: An extended abstract of this paper has been accepted to CPM 201

Formal specification of a self-sustainable holonic system for smart electrical micro-grids

Stand-alone micro-grids have emerged within the smart grids field, facing important challenges related to their proper and efficient operation. An example is the self-sustainability when the micro-grid is disconnected from the main utility, e.g., due to a failure in the main utility or due to geographical situations, which requires the efficient control of energy demand and production. This paper describes the formal specification of a holonic system architecture that is able to perform the automation control functions in electrical stand-alone micro-grids, particularly aiming to improve their self-sustainability. The system aims at optimizing the power flow among the different electrical players, both producers and consumers, to keep the micro-grid operating even under adverse situations. The behaviour of each individual holon and their coordination patterns were modelled, analysed and validated using the Petri net formalism, allowing the complete verification of the system correctness during the design phase.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

High-yielding 18F radiosynthesis of a novel oxytocin receptor tracer, a probe for nose-to-brain oxytocin uptake in vivo

A novel Al18F labelled peptide tracer for PET imaging of oxytocin receptor has been accessed through a high radiochemical yield approach. This tracer showed comparable affinity and higher selectivity and stability compared to oxytocin, and was used to demonstrate direct nose-to-brain uptake following intranasal administration, a common yet controversial delivery route for oxytocin-based therapeutics

Your Proof Fails? Testing Helps to Find the Reason

Applying deductive verification to formally prove that a program respects its formal specification is a very complex and time-consuming task due in particular to the lack of feedback in case of proof failures. Along with a non-compliance between the code and its specification (due to an error in at least one of them), possible reasons of a proof failure include a missing or too weak specification for a called function or a loop, and lack of time or simply incapacity of the prover to finish a particular proof. This work proposes a new methodology where test generation helps to identify the reason of a proof failure and to exhibit a counter-example clearly illustrating the issue. We describe how to transform an annotated C program into C code suitable for testing and illustrate the benefits of the method on comprehensive examples. The method has been implemented in STADY, a plugin of the software analysis platform FRAMA-C. Initial experiments show that detecting non-compliances and contract weaknesses allows to precisely diagnose most proof failures.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure