Future trends in data mining

Over recent years data mining has been establishing itself as one of the major disciplines in computer science with growing industrial impact. Undoubtedly, research in data mining will continue and even increase over coming decades. In this article, we sketch our vision of the future of data mining. Starting from the classic definition of “data mining”, we elaborate on topics that — in our opinion — will set trends in data mining.     

Metallo‐Supramolecular Block Copolymers

Supramolecular copolymers have become of increasing interest in recent years for the search of new materials with tunable properties. In particular, metallo‐supramolecular block copolymers—copolymers in which the blocks are linked together by a metal–ligand complex—have seen important progresses, allowing better control over the synthetic strategies for various architectures, and providing a better understanding of the parameters governing their self‐assembly. We review here recent developments on the synthesis and self‐assembly of such materials achieved in this field.     

Cover Picture: Magnetorheological Fluids Based on Ionic Liquids (Adv. Mater. 13/2007)

The use of ionic liquids as carriers of magnetorheological fluids is described by Schubert and co‐workers on p. 1740. Combining the properties of ionic liquids with magnetorheological technology may lead to new, “smart” fluids for application in medical therapies, engineering devices, or multiphase biological and chemical systems. In the presence of a magnetic field the fluids behave as solids owing to a stronger interaction between their suspended magnetic particles. In the absence of the magnetic field, they become liquids again in a fully reversible process.     

Temperature behaviour of different photovoltaic systems installed in Cyprus and Germany

This paper describes field investigations performed and the evaluated temperature behaviour of 13 different types of PV modules, which have been exposed to real conditions both in Stuttgart, Germany and Nicosia, Cyprus. The temperature coefficients have been evaluated in two ways. The first using direct outdoor measurements and the second through the application of data manipulation techniques on the measured meteorological and operational data collected by the installed sensors present at the test sites. The results from the two methods are finally compared and validated demonstrating the reasonable agreement with the manufacturers’ data.     

Silicon matrix disorder in amorphous hydrogenated silicon alloys

The authors report a detailed investigation of correlations between Urbach energies from photothermal deflection spectroscopy and Raman half-widths of transverse optic (TO)-like Si-Si modes as a measure of silicon matrix disorder in glow-discharge amorphous hydrogenated silicon (a-Si:H) and a-SiGe:H, as well as in glow-discharge and sputtered a-SiC:H and a-SiN:H. A corresponding decrease in TO full width at half-maximum (FWHM) and Urbach energy E₀ for soft deposition techniques yields bond angle distributions as narrow as 8.5° for the best a-Si:H films. Even at the lowest levels of nitrogen incorporation, simultaneous increases in E₀ and TO-like half-widths indicate that lattice distortions occur due to threefold coordination of nitrogen in the a-Si:H matrix. In contrast, no deviation of silicon TO-FWHM could be detected in a-SiC:H of up to 35 at.% of carbon content, whereas Urbach edges broaden in a well-known manner that is interpreted in terms of -CH₃ incorporation into the amorphous network. Diborane doping and sputter deposition, however, give rise to lattice distortions in a-SiC:H, which reflects changes in the carbon coordination     

Characteristics of garden dormice that contribute to their capacity as reservoirs for lyme disease spirochetes

To describe the contribution of garden dormice to the epizootiology of Lyme disease, we compared their reservoir capacity for these pathogens to that of other sympatric hosts. Garden dormice are trapped most abundantly during early spring and again during midsummer, when their offspring forage. They are closely associated with moist forests. Garden dormice serve as hosts to nymphal ticks far more frequently than do other small mammals. Spirochetal infection is most prevalent in dormice, and many more larval ticks acquire infection in the course of feeding on these than on other rodents in the study site. Mature dormice appear to contribute more infections to the vector population than juveniles do. Replete larval ticks generally detach while their dormouse hosts remain within their nests. The population of garden dormice contributes five- to sevenfold more infections to the vector population than the mouse population does. Their competence, nymphal feeding density, and preference for a tick-permissive habitat combine to favor garden dormice over other putative reservoir hosts of Lyme disease spirochetes.     

Sliding-induced adhesion of stiff polymer microfibre arrays. I. Macroscale behaviour.

Gecko-inspired microfibre arrays with 42 million polypropylene fibres cm(-2) (each fibre with elastic modulus 1 GPa, length 20 microm and diameter 0.6 microm) were fabricated and tested under pure shear loading conditions, after removing a preload of less than 0.1 N cm(-2). After sliding to engage fibres, 2 cm2 patches developed up to 4N of shear force with an estimated contact region of 0.44 cm2. The control unfibrillated surface had no measurable shear force. For comparison, a natural setal patch tested under the same conditions on smooth glass showed approximately seven times greater shear per unit estimated contact region. Similar to gecko fibre arrays, the synthetic patch maintains contact and increases shear force with sliding. The high shear force observed (approx. 210 nN per fibre) suggests that fibres are in side contact, providing a larger true contact area than would be obtained by tip contact. Shear force increased over the course of repeated tests for synthetic patches, suggesting deformation of fibres into more favourable conformations.