Biscuit-Making Quality Prediction Using Heritability Estimates and Correlations

The aim of this study was to predict biscuit-making quality by using correlations between and, heritabilities of, the most important soft wheat quality characteristics. A full diallele cross was made between six spring wheats. The parents and 30 F ₁ hybrids were used as experimental material. Percentage vitreous kernels, breakflour yield, farinograph absorption, farinograph development time and alkaline water retention capacity were highly heritable and were also significantly correlated with sugar-snap biscuit diameter. Selection for these characteristics should lead to improvement of biscuit-making quality. In general, softer kernels and a weak dough with a low water absorption were desirable for good biscuit-making quality.     

The busbar system for Wendelstein 7-X prepared for assembly and operational loads

Forschungszentrum Jülich has taken over the design, manufacturing and assembly of the superconducting busbar system for the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X. This includes the busbars itself, the support structure consisting of supports and clamps, and the joints for electrical and hydraulic connection of the busbars and coil terminals. Apart from providing the required electrical connection scheme, the busbar system has to be designed for relevant electrical and mechanical loads. Numerous interfaces and geometric boundary conditions define the confined space to accommodate the busbars and their support elements. This article describes how the individual challenges to engineering have been met in the course of the project. This includes design concepts and the method for iterative design of supports with respect to the individual load distribution caused by the supports itself.     

Fast microwave-assisted solvothermal synthesis of metal nanoparticles (Pd,Ni, Sn) supported on sulfonated MWCNTs: Pd-based bimetallic catalysts for ethanol oxidation in alkaline medium

The preparation of metal nanoparticles (Pd, Ni, Sn) supported on sulfonated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (SF-MWCNTs) using a very rapid microwave-assisted solvothermal strategy has been described. Electrocatalytic behaviour of the SF-MWCNT-Pd and its ‘mixed’ bimetallic electrocatalysts (i.e., SF-MWCNT-PdSn_mix and SF-MWCNT-PdNi_mix) towards ethanol oxidation in alkaline medium was investigated. The result shows that the mixed Pd-based catalysts (obtained by simple ultrasonic-mixing of the individual MWCNT-metal nanocomposites) gave better electrocatalytic activity than their alloy nanoparticles (obtained by co-reduction of metal salts) or Pd alone. The SF-MWCNT platform gave better electrocatalytic performance compared to the unsulfonated and commercial Vulcan carbons. Detailed electrochemical studies (involving cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry, chronopotentiometry, and impedance spectroscopy) prove that the electrocatalytic oxidation of ethanol at the SF-MWCNT-PdNi_mix platform is more stable, occurs at lower potential, gives lower Tafel slopes, with faster charge-transfer kinetics compared to its SF-MWCNT-PdSn_mix counterpart. Also, result revealed that SF-MWCNT-PdNi_mix is more tolerant to CO poisoning than the SF-MWCNT-PdSn_mix. The results provide some important insights into the electrochemical response of microwave-synthesised Pd-based bimetallic catalysts for potential application in direct ethanol alkaline fuel cell technology.     

Self‐Assembled Sugar‐Substituted Perylene Diimide Nanostructures with Homochirality and High Gas Sensitivity

A new symmetrical sugar‐based perylenediimide derivative PTCDI‐BAG is synthesized and its aggregate morphologies and formation mechanisms are studied in detail in the mixed solvent system water/N,N‐dimethylformamide (H₂O/DMF) with changing volume ratios. PTCDI‐BAG molecules self‐assemble into planar ribbons in 20/80 and 40/60 H₂O/DMF (v/v), but their chiralities are opposite according to recorded circular dichroism (CD) spectra. With a further increase of the water content, only left‐handed helical nanowires are obtained in 60/40 and 80/20 H₂O/DMF (v/v) mixtures. By combining density functional theory (DFT) calculations with the experimental investigations, it is proposed that kinetic and thermodynamic factors play key roles in tuning PTCDI‐BAG structures and helicity. The formation of the ribbon is thermodynamically controlled in the 20/80 H₂O/DMF system, but kinetically controlled nucleation followed by thermodynamically controlled self‐assembly plays the governing roles for the formation of nanoribbons in 40/60 H₂O/DMF. Devices based on single nanoribbons for hydrazine sensing exhibit better performance than nanofiber bundles obtained in this study and achiral nanostructures reported in previous study. This study not only provides an elaborated route to tuning the structures and helicity of PTCDI molecules, but also provides new possibilities for the construction of high‐performance nanodevices.     

Insight into the Solid Electrolyte Interphase Formation in Bis(fluorosulfonyl)Imide Based Ionic Liquid Electrolytes

The formation of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) in an ionic liquid electrolyte of 0.5 m lithium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (LiFSI) in 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide at high cell voltages (1.7–1.9 V) is investigated in ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC) based Li metal cells using an operando small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) technique coupled with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and ex situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It is demonstrated that discharging the OMC Li metal cells to ≈2 V and holding the cell voltage constant induces a rapid current increase with time, confirming extensive reduction and SEI formation. XPS analysis reveals that LiF is formed at open cell voltage (OCV), which is attributed to the carbenes generated at the lithium negative electrode because of its reaction with EMIm cation diffusing to and initiating the reaction with FSI⁻ anions at the carbon positive electrode. It is confirmed that the chemical reaction at OCV and electrochemical reduction at high cell voltage of the FSI⁻ anion plays a protective role against EMIm cation co-intercalation into the carbon positive electrode during the initial discharge. Operando SANS studies also suggest that slight differences occur in the surface composition and reaction mechanism as a function of cell voltage.     

Organized Nanostructured Complexes of Polyoxometalates and Surfactants that Exhibit Photoluminescence and Electrochromism

A variety of functional nanostructured organic/inorganic hybrid materials from the europium‐exchanged derivative of a Preyssler‐type polyoxometalate (POM), [EuP₅W₃₀O₁₁₀]^12?, and functional organic surfactants were prepared by the ionic self‐assembly (ISA) route. The effect of organic surfactants on the structure, photoluminescent, electrochemical and electrochromic properties of the POM anions was investigated in detail. All obtained hybrid materials are amphotropic, i.e., exhibit both thermotropic and lyotropic liquid‐crystalline phase behaviour. Investigations of their photophysical properties have shown that the interactions of the various surfactants with the polyanions influence the coordination environments and site symmetry of Eu³⁺ in different ways. The functional groups in the organic surfactants significantly influence the electrochromic properties and photoluminescence of POMs. Different from normal and pyridine‐containing complexes, no photoluminescence and no electrochromism were observed from the ferrocene‐containing complexes. This may be explained in view of charge transfer between the POM anion and the ferrocenyl group.     

Dynamic Multi‐View Exploration of Shape Spaces

Statistical shape modeling is a widely used technique for the representation and analysis of the shapes and shape variations present in a population. A statistical shape model models the distribution in a high dimensional shape space, where each shape is represented by a single point. We present a design study on the intuitive exploration and visualization of shape spaces and shape models. Our approach focuses on the dual‐space nature of these spaces. The high‐dimensional shape space represents the population, whereas object space represents the shape of the 3D object associated with a point in shape space. A 3D object view provides local details for a single shape. The high dimensional points in shape space are visualized using a 2D scatter plot projection, the axes of which can be manipulated interactively. This results in a dynamic scatter plot, with the further extension that each point is visualized as a small version of the object shape that it represents. We further enhance the population‐object duality with a new type of view aimed at shape comparison. This new “shape evolution view” visualizes shape variability along a single trajectory in shape space, and serves as a link between the two spaces described above. Our three‐view exploration concept strongly emphasizes linked interaction between all spaces. Moving the cursor over the scatter plot or evolution views, shapes are dynamically interpolated and shown in the object view. Conversely, camera manipulation in the object view affects the object visualizations in the other views. We present a GPU‐accelerated implementation, and show the effectiveness of the three‐view approach using a number of real‐world cases. In these, we demonstrate how this multi‐view approach can be used to visually explore important aspects of a statistical shape model, including specificity, compactness and reconstruction error.     

Direct Visualization of Deformation in Volumes

Deformation is a topic of interest in many disciplines. In particular in medical research, deformations of surfaces and even entire volumetric structures are of interest. Clear visualization of such deformations can lead to important insight into growth processes and progression of disease.
We present new techniques for direct focus+context visualization of deformation fields representing transformations between pairs of volumetric datasets. Typically, such fields are computed by performing a non-rigid registration between two data volumes. Our visualization is based on direct volume rendering and uses the GPU to compute and interactively visualize features of these deformation fields in real-time. We integrate visualization of the deformation field with visualization of the scalar volume affected by the deformations. Furthermore, we present a novel use of texturing in volume rendered visualizations to show additional properties of the vector field on surfaces in the volume.     

Energy dependence of dye sensitized charge carrier injection into organic crystals

A plateau extending over 0.7 eV and a sudden decrease by three orders of magnitude in the yield of hole injection through ¹D* rhodamine B has been observed when the ionization energy of the organic electrode was varied over 1 eV, using perylene, anthracene, chrysene, phenanthrene and naphthalene crystals. The experimental result agrees with some basic assumptions which are made when applying electron transfer theory to an excited dye molecule at the interface between an aqueous solution and an insulator or semiconductor. The measured energy dependence illustrates the expected non-linear relationship between the photocurrent and the rate constant of electron transfer to the excited dye molecule.