Highly Efficient,Solution‐Processed,Single‐Layer,Electrophosphorescent Diodes and the Effect of Molecular Dipole Moment

A new family of highly soluble electrophosphorescent dopants based on a series of tris‐cyclometalated iridium(III) complexes (1–4) of 2‐(carbazol‐3‐yl)‐4/5‐R‐pyridine ligands with varying molecular dipole strengths have been synthesized. Highly efficient, solution‐processed, single‐layer, electrophosphorescent diodes utilizing these complexes have been prepared and characterized. The high triplet energy poly(9‐vinylcarbazole) PVK is used as a host polymer doped with 2‐(4‐biphenylyl)‐5‐(4‐tert‐butyl‐phenyl)‐1,3,4‐oxadiazole (PBD) for electron transport. Devices with a current efficiency of 40 cd A^?1 corresponding to an EQE of 12% can thus be achieved. The effect of the type and position of the substituent (electron‐withdrawing group (CF₃) and electron‐donating group (OMe)) on the molecular dipole moment of the complexes has been investigated. A correlation between the absorption strength of the singlet metal‐to‐ligand charge‐transfer (¹MLCT) transition and the luminance spectral red shift as a function of solvent polarity is observed. The strength of the transition dipole moments for complexes 1–4 has also been obtained from TD‐DFT computations, and is found to be consistent with the observed molecular dipole moments of these complexes. The relatively long lifetime of the excitons of the phosphorescence (microseconds) compared to the charge‐carrier scattering time (less than nanoseconds), allows the transition dipole moment to be considered as a “quasi permanent dipole”. Therefore, the carrier mobility is sufficiently affected by the long‐lived transition dipole moments of the phosphorescent molecules, which are randomly oriented in the medium. The dopant dipoles cause positional and energetic disorder because of the locally modified polarization energy. Furthermore, the electron‐withdrawing group CF₃ induces strong carrier dispersion that enhances the electron mobility. Therefore, the strong transition dipole moment in complexes 3 and 4 perturbs both electron and hole mobilities, yielding a reduction in exciton formation and an increase in the device dark current, thereby decreasing the device efficiency.     

Simulation Techniques for the Manufacturing Test of MCMs

Simulation techniques used in the Manufacturing Test SIMulator(MTSIM) are described. MTSIM is a Concurrent Engineering tool used tosimulate the manufacturing test andrepair aspects of boards and MCMs from design concept through manufacturing release. MTSIM helps designers select assemblyprocess, specify Design For Test (DFT) features, select board testcoverage, specify ASIC defect level goals, establish productfeasibility, and predict manufacturing quality and cost goals. A newyield model for boards and MCMs which accounts for theclustering of solder defects is introduced and used topredict the yield at each test step. In addition, MTSIMestimates the average number of defects per board detected at eachtest step, and estimates costs incurred in test execution, faultisolation and repair. MTSIM models were validated withhigh performance assemblies at Hewlett-Packard (HP).     

Conjugated Polymers of Intrinsic Microporosity (C‐PIMs)

Conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) have shown great potential for energy and environmental issues, however, poor solubility and processability of most of these materials limit their applications. Herein, a range of linear conjugated polymers of intrinsic microporosity (C‐PIMs) is reported, combining for the first time the properties of conjugated microporous polymers, such as tunable electronic properties and compositional variation, with those of linear polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIMs) allowing for solution processability and film formation. These soluble materials have a number of potential applications, for example as components in devices where large, porous interfaces are combined with extended electronic conjugation.     

On energy‐efficient aggregation routing and scheduling in IEEE 802.15.4‐based wireless sensor networks

In wireless sensor networks, continued operation of battery‐powered devices plays a crucial role particularly in remote deployment. The lifetime of a wireless sensor is primarily dependent upon battery capacity and energy efficiency. In this paper, reduction of the energy consumption of heterogeneous devices with different power and range characteristics is introduced in the context of duty scheduling, dynamic adjustment of transmission ranges, and the effects of IEEE 802.15.4‐based data aggregation routing. Energy consumption in cluster‐based networks is modeled as a mixed‐integer linear and nonlinear programming problem, an NP‐hard problem. The objective function provides a basis by which total energy consumption is reduced. Heuristics are proposed for cluster construction (Average Energy Consumption and the Maximum Number of Source Nodes) and data aggregation routing (Cluster‐based Data Aggregation Routing) such that total energy consumption is minimized. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of balancing cluster size with dynamic transmission range. The heuristics outperform other modified existing algorithms by an average of 15.65% for cluster head assignment, by an average of 22.1% for duty cycle scheduling, and by up to 18.6% for data aggregation routing heuristics. A comparison of dynamic and fixed transmission ranges for IEEE 802.15.4‐based wireless sensor networks is also provided. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Software‐defined network‐based prioritization to avoid video freezes in HTTP adaptive streaming

HTTP adaptive streaming (HAS) is becoming the de facto standard for video streaming services over the Internet. In HAS, each video is segmented and stored in different qualities. Rate adaptation heuristics, deployed at the client, allow the most appropriate quality level to be dynamically requested, based on the current network conditions. It has been shown that state‐of‐the‐art heuristics perform suboptimal when sudden bandwidth drops occur, therefore leading to freezes in the video playout, the main factor influencing users' quality of experience (QoE). This issue is aggravated in case of live events, where the client‐side buffer has to be kept as small as possible in order to reduce the playout delay between the user and the live signal. In this article, we propose a framework capable of increasing the QoE of HAS clients by reducing video freezes. The framework is based on OpenFlow, a widely adopted protocol to implement the software‐defined networking principle. An OpenFlow controller is in charge of introducing prioritized delivery of HAS segments, based on the network conditions and the HAS clients' status. Particularly, the HAS clients' status is obtained without any explicit clients‐to‐controller communication, and thus, no extra signaling is introduced into the network. Moreover, this OpenFlow controller is transparent to the quality decision process of the clients, as it assists the delivery of the segments, but it does not determine the actual quality to be requested. In order to provide a comprehensive analysis of the proposed approach, we investigate the performance of the proposed OpenFlow‐based framework in the presence of realistic Internet cross‐traffic. Particularly, we model two types of applications, namely, HTTP web browsing and progressive download video streaming, which currently represent the majority of Internet traffic together with HAS. By evaluating this novel approach through emulation in several multi‐client scenarios, we show how the proposed approach can reduce freeze time for the HAS clients due to network congestion up to 10 times compared with state‐of‐the‐art heuristics, without impacting the performance of the cross‐traffic applications. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The binding of chloramphenicol to serum proteins in patients with chronic renal insufficiency

The binding (r) of chloramphenicol to serum proteins is significantly lower in patients with chronic renal failure than in normal subjects. Before hemodialysis, the mean r value in patients with chronic renal insufficiency was 0.165 mg/g (+/-0.003) versus 0.188 mg/g (+/-0.004) in healthy individuals. Hemodialysis produced a significant rise in r (to 0.182 mg/g, +/-0.004). Decrease in the serum concentration of albumin in patients with chronic renal insufficiency does not seem to be the sole factor responsible for decreased r.     

Use of the slave emulator

In-circuit emulation is the ability to imitate electrically a target microprocessor, responding to system inputs or instructions, and producing accurately the expected outputs or responses to the instructions. A modular building block approach to microprocessor-based design is given, the Slave Emulator Control Unit (SECU) is described and its flexibility shown.     

Bioaccessibility and antioxidant activity of phenolic compounds in cooked pulses

The aim of this study was to evaluate the bioaccessibility of polyphenols and antioxidant activity in cooked pulses and to study the effect of cooking on their total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant capacity. Cooked faba beans showed the highest TPC, followed by soybeans and lentils or peas. TPC ranged from 10.4 ± 0.2 to 52.9 ± 0.3 mg/100 g and was positively correlated with antioxidant activity. Cooking resulted in increased TPC and antioxidant activity of the methanolic extracts, caused by cell disruption and improved extraction of polyphenols. Although polyphenols were lost in the cooking water, boiled legumes had more polyphenols than those resulting cooking broths. In vitro gastrointestinal digestion resulted in increased TPC and antioxidant capacity of the extracts. Soybeans showed the highest amount of bioaccessible polyphenols. The release of phenolics from cooked legumes was mainly achieved during the intestinal phase. Literature data may underestimate the TPC and antioxidant capacity of pulses.