Diffractive backlight grating array for mobile displays

Abstract— The display backlight unit (BLU) is the most power‐consuming subunit in mobile liquid‐crystal displays. The state‐of‐the‐art BLUs utilize scattering, refractive, and reflective microstructures to generate a uniform distribution of white light through the display. More effective means of transmitting light through the display color filters could be obtained by using diffraction, but previously proposed diffractive backlights do not fully utilize all the possibilities to design gratings effectively for optimal color separation and outcoupling. This paper presents a new pixelated diffractive backlight grating array as an approach for overcoming these obstacles in BLU design. A model array was fabricated to couple out red, green, and blue primary colors from the respective subpixel locations. The results show that it is possible to manufacture such an array and that the light couples out as intended, giving a starting point to design mobile‐display modules with low light‐transmission losses.     

Normalising OLAP cubes for controlling sparsity

A poorly designed OLAP (on-line analytical processing) cube can have a size much larger than the volume of information, potentially leading to problems with performance and usability. We give a new normal form for OLAP cube design and synthesis and decomposition algorithms to produce normalised OLAP cube schemata. OLAP cube normalisation controls the structural sparsity resulting from inter-dimensional functional dependencies. We assume that functional dependencies are used to describe the constraints of the application universe of discourse. Our methods help the user to identify cube schemata with structural sparsity, and to change the design in order to obtain more economy of space.     

Insights into corrosion in dye solar cells

The main issue in using low cost metals in dye solar cells is the corrosion caused by the liquid electrolyte. Contrary to typical applications of metals, the adverse effects of corrosion in dye solar cells are related to irreversible depletion of charge carriers from the electrolyte rather than consumption of the metal itself. It is calculated that the penetration rate due to corrosion should not exceed 10⁻⁴ mpy (a couple of nanometers per year) to ensure device lifetime longer than 1 year. This is 10 000 times slower rate than what is considered to be a general benchmark value for very low corrosion rate in the field of corrosion science and has a major effect on how corrosion should be investigated in the case of dye solar cells. Different methods, their applicability, and limitations to investigate corrosion in dye solar cells are evaluated here. The issue with most techniques is that they can detect metals that are clearly corroding, but they have significant limitations in proving a metal stable. Our investigation shows that the most reliable information on corrosion is obtained from complete dye solar cells that are exposed to working conditions. A combination of color analysis of the electrolyte to such measurement is proposed as a means to extrapolate future performance of the cells and estimate potential lifetimes of the dye solar cells in regards to corrosion. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Live delivery of neurosurgical operating theater experience in virtual reality

A system for assisting in microneurosurgical training and for delivering interactive mixed reality surgical experience live was developed and experimented in hospital premises. An interactive experience from the neurosurgical operating theater was presented together with associated medical content on virtual reality eyewear of remote users. Details of the stereoscopic 360‐degree capture, surgery imaging equipment, signal delivery, and display systems are presented, and the presence experience and the visual quality questionnaire results are discussed. The users reported positive scores on the questionnaire on topics related to the user experience achieved in the trial.     

Reaction engineering studies in a polytropic fixed-bed reactor over a highly active and selective catalyst for oxidative methane coupling

The oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) was carried out in a polytropic fixed-bed reactor applying a Zr/La/Sr catalyst developed by the Neste company. Over this catalyst the OCM reaction follows a complex reaction scheme which includes primary parallel reaction steps to CO, CO₂ and C₂H₆ and consecutive reactions of ethane to ethylene or CO_x. Yield of higher hydrocarbons C₂₊ obtained with this catalyst strongly depended on reaction conditions, i.e. low partial pressures of methane and oxygen obtained by diluting the feed gas with nitrogen and high reaction temperatures promoted C₂₊ selectivity and yield. The maximum yield amounted to 21.4% (20 Vol.-% CH₄, 9 Vol.-% O₂, 71 Vol.-% N₂, T = 860°C; X_CH4 = 41.8%, S = 52.5%). This result belongs to the highest yields reported in the open literature.     

Material-related losses of natural rubber composites with surface-modified nanodiamonds

Dielectric elastomer generators (DEGs) offer a solution for the growing sustainable energy needs. Despite the active research on DEGs, currently used materials do not possess the required properties to achieve the full potential performance of such generators, thus, limiting an economical attractiveness of DEGs. Therefore, tailor-made materials for DEGs are in demand. Customizing the natural rubber recipe allows both dielectric and mechanical loss reduction, while the addition of nanodiamonds lowers the stress relaxation and hysteresis loss even further. The effect is most pronounced after chemical modification of nanodiamonds with silane coupling agents. Moreover, such modified nanodiamonds show less dielectric losses compared to unmodified nanodiamonds and allow reducing the dynamic loss tangent of the compound. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020 , 137, 48629.     

Analysis of diastereomeric DAG naphthylethylurethanes by normal-phase HPLC with on-line electrospray MS

Normal-phase HPLC resolution of sn-1,2(2,3)- and x-1,3-DAG generated by partial Grignard degradation from natural TAG was carried out with both (R)-(−) and (S)-(+)-1-(1-naphthyl)ethylurethane derivatives. The diastereomeric sn-1,2- and sn-2,3-DAG derivatives were resolved using two Supelcosil LC-Si (5 μm, 25 cm × 4.6 mm i.d.) columns in series and an isocratic elution with 0.37% isopropanol in hexane at a flow rate of 0.7 mL/min. The DAG were detected by UV absorption at 280 nm and were identified by electrospray ionization MS in the positive ion mode following postcolumn addition of chloroform/methanol/30% ammonium hydroxide (75∶24.5∶0.5, by vol) at 0.6 mL/min. Application of the method to a stereospecific analysis of the molecular species of TAG of rat VLDL showed that the TAG composition of VLDL circulating under basal conditions differs markedly from that of VLDL secreted by the liver during inhibition of serum lipases. The inhibition of serum lipases resulted in a significant proportional decrease in 16∶0 and PUFA and an increase in 18∶0 and oligoenoic FA in the sn-1-position, whereas the FA compositions in the sn-2- and sn-3-positions were much less affected.