Review of The essential Sternberg: Essays on intelligence, psychology, and education.

Reviews the book, The essential Sternberg: Essays on intelligence, psychology, and education edited by James C. Kaufman and Elena L. Grigorenko (see record 2009-00687-000). For years, Robert Sternberg has produced renowned, groundbreaking work, and now some of it is captured in one volume: The Essential Sternberg. The book gathers in one place Sternberg’s major publications. From a repertoire of more than 1,000 journal articles, book chapters, and books, the editors have chosen 20 seminal works, spanning 30 years from 1977 to 2006. Although not organized chronologically, the ordering of the chapters reflects the progression of Sternberg’s work. In reading the book, one gains a sense of how a theory (and a career) of one of psychology’s major thinkers has evolved. The book presents five arcs of Sternberg’s research and theory on intelligence and education. No book, of course, can cover all the areas of a scholar’s research, so readers wanting to learn more about, for example, Sternberg’s work on love will need to look elsewhere. However, Sternberg’s central ideas and work are certainly on display in this book. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preparation,characterization, and photoluminescence study of PVA/ZnO nanocomposite films

ZnO nanoparticles with average diameter of 25 nm were synthesized by a modified sol–gel method and used in the preparation of (in wt.%) (100 − x) poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/x ZnO nanocomposite films, with x = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The PVA/ZnO films were exposed to UV radiation for 96 h and their thermal, morphological, and spectroscopic properties were investigated. In inert atmosphere, the nanocomposite films showed lower thermal stability than the pure PVA film, and the calorimetric data suggest an interaction between PVA and ZnO in the nanocomposite films. Some crystalline phases could be seen in the films with ZnO, and a direct dependence on the ZnO concentration was also observed. The original structure of ZnO nanoparticles remained unaltered in the PVA matrix and they were uniformly distributed on the film surface. The roughness of the PVA film was not modified by the addition of ZnO; however, it increased after 96 h of UV irradiation, more significantly in the nanocomposite films. The films showed an absorption band centered at 370 nm and a broad emission band in the UV–vis region when excited at 325 nm.     

Polypropylene/glass fibre 3D-textile reinforced composites for automotive applications

Textile-reinforced thermoplastic composites offer huge application potentials for a rapid manufacturing of components with versatile possibilities of integrating functions. However, an application of these new materials requires the knowledge of the directional dependent material properties. In this study, results are presented concerning selected relevant load cases for industrial applications. For the new group of multi-layered flat bed weft-knitted glass fibre/polypropylene composites (MKF-GF/PP), tensile tests under different temperatures and test velocities have been carried out as well as Charpy impact tests, open hole tension tests and dynamic-mechanical analysis. The mechanical properties of MKF-GF/PP and unidirectional GF/PP composites with tailored fibre surface and interphase, respectively, have been compared to those of woven GF/PP composites and GF/PP composites made of non-crimp fabrics (NCF) as a benchmark.     

Finding auxetic frameworks in periodic tessellations

It appears that most models for micro-structured materials with auxetic deformations were found by clever intuition, possibly combined with optimization tools, rather than by systematic searches of existing structure archives. Here we review our recent approach of finding micro-structured materials with auxetic mechanisms within the vast repositories of planar tessellations. This approach has produced two previously unknown auxetic mechanisms, which have Poisson's ratio νss=-1 when realized as a skeletal structure of stiff incompressible struts pivoting freely at common vertices. One of these, baptized Triangle-Square Wheels, has been produced as a linear-elastic cellular structure from Ti-6Al-4V alloy by selective electron beam melting. Its linear-elastic properties were measured by tensile experiments and yield an effective Poisson's ratio νLE≈-0.75, also in agreement with finite element modeling. The similarity between the Poisson's ratios νSS of the skeletal structure and νLE of the linear-elastic cellular structure emphasizes the fundamental role of geometry for deformation behavior, regardless of the mechanical details of the system. The approach of exploiting structure archives as candidate geometries for auxetic materials also applies to spatial networks and tessellations and can aid the quest for inherently three-dimensional auxetic mechanisms.     

CISCuT––solar cells and modules on the basis of CuInS2 on Cu-tape

In this paper the work and current findings about thin film solar cell technology––CISCuT (CuInS₂ on Cu-tape) is reviewed. Taking current market requirements into account it is shown that CISCuT based solar cells and modules could satisfy the demands of the market. The results of this study show that especially flexible and lightweight cells and modules should be made available on the basis of CISCuT. The innovative reel-to-reel technology to make quasi-endless tapes of solar cells and the inseparable connected unique absorber growth is explained in more detail. It is shown that the growth process can be monitored and even be controlled by means of an on-line measurement of electrical properties, which are strongly correlated to the properties of the final solar cell. Investigations and modelling of cell physics result in a p-i-n like cell structure of the CISCuT solar cells. The efficiency potential is explained for this device connected with an outlook for further improvement of the cell performance. The current batch of cells with an efficiency of about 9% is demonstrated connected with an appropriate stability of cells. The efficiency losses during the module assembling process are discussed. Efficiencies of test modules up to 7% are reported.     

提高假编变形丝加工效率的新方法

探索了采用加工POY、MOY、LOY和PET长丝的新概念制成的假编变形丝的特性.将定型装置安装在编织区和卷绕区之间,这样确保生产的假编变形丝具有多种特性.研究表明牵伸连续性很好,假编变形丝特性的偏差很小.     

Chromium distribution in multicrystalline silicon: comparison of simulations and experiments

We studied the precipitation of chromium in multicrystalline silicon during the crystallization process and temperature treatments typical for solar cell processing. A model which was already successfully used for simulating heterogeneous precipitation of iron is transferred to chromium, allowing two‐dimensional simulations of dissolved chromium and precipitate density. The observed accordance with spatially resolved measurements demonstrates the similarity of chromium to iron precipitation and the ability of our model to predict the dissolved chromium concentration in multicrystalline silicon. After the crystallization process, a high impact of chromium on the carrier lifetime of wafers originating from an ingot intentionally contaminated with 20 ppma chromium in the melt was observed. The concentration of dissolved chromium was significantly reduced by phosphorus diffusion gettering or oxidation at 815°C. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.