Towards frozen organic PN junctions at room temperature using high-Tg polymeric electrolytes

Light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) based on a semiconducting polymer blended with lithium salt and novel polyelectrolytes have been studied. Random copolymers of poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate have been developed in order to increase their glass transition temperature (T_g) above room temperature. Devices have been optimized and successfully turned on upon heating. Cooling devices under applied voltage bias down to room temperature leads to frozen PN junctions. The relaxation of these junctions over voltage-free storage is studied. The higher the T_g, the longer the shelf-life of the junctions. This research opens the route to room temperature stable organic PN junctions for use in organic electronic devices such as light-emitting diodes, photovoltaic solar cells and other organic electronic devices.     

Protective effects of taurine on human hair follicle grown in vitro

Taurine is a naturally occurring beta-amino acid produced by methionine and cysteine metabolism. It is involved in a variety of physiological functions, including immunomodulatory and antifibrotic. Taking advantage of the ability of human hair follicle grown in vitro to recapitulate most of the characteristic features of normal hair follicle in vivo, we studied (i) taurine uptake by isolated human hair follicles; (ii) its effects on hair growth and survival rate; and (iii) its protective potential against transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1, an inhibitor of in vitro hair growth and a master switch of fibrotic program. We showed that taurine was taken up by the connective tissue sheath, proximal outer root sheath and hair bulb, promoted hair survival in vitro and prevented TGF-beta1-induced deleterious effects on hair follicle.     

A metamodel for the design of polychronous systems

This article presents the development of a metamodel and an open-source design environment for the synchronous language Signal in the Gme and Eclipse frameworks. This environment is intended to be used as a pivot modeling tool for a customized, aspect-oriented and application-driven, computer-aided engineering of embedded systems starting from multiple and heterogeneous initial specifications. The metamodel, called SignalMeta, is defined on top of the design workbench Polychrony, which is dedicated to Signal programming. Automated transformations are defined and implemented in order to produce, analyze, statically verify and model-check programs obtained from high-level models.The proposed approach promotes model-driven engineering within a framework that strongly favors formal validation. It aims at significantly decreasing design costs while improving the quality of systems. We demonstrate the agility of this approach by considering the design of both control-oriented and avionic systems. We start with an implementation of core polychronous¹ data-flow concepts in Gme and show the ease of its modular extension with application-specific concepts such as mode automata or integrated modular avionics concepts. This work is the first attempt to generalize the formal model of computation and the design philosophy of Polychrony.