A Technique for Determining Solar Irradiance Deficits

A novel analytic technique, involving the use of computer-assisted data-reduction techniques, has been developed to determine the variation of solar irradiance from long-term averages. The objective of the study was to develop a tool that would enable solar system designers to assess and improve overall system reliability by determining the amount of backup and/or storage capability required to supplement a baseline system sized according to long-term averages. The technique allows the determination of variations for intervals of time up to 60 days. This paper presents results of the analysis of 13 sites in the continental USA. Cost-effective accommodation of solar irradiance deficits includes both increasing the collector area by about 15% to cover long-term year-to-year variations from the average, and adding energy storage or backup to cover short-term deficits such as those caused by local storms. Site-to-site dependency exists, causing a range of required short-term storage capacities of 1 to 7 no-sun days to accommodate the weather-caused deficits for this broad variety of sites.     

Structural Explanation of the Dielectric Enhancement of Barium Titanate Nanoparticles Grown under Hydrothermal Conditions

When synthesized under certain conditions, barium titanate (BaTiO₃, BTO) nanoparticles are found to have the non-thermodynamic cubic structure at room temperature. These particles also have a several-fold enhanced dielectric constant, sometimes exceeding 6000, and are widely used in thin-layer capacitors. A hydrothermal approach is used to synthesize BTO nanocrystals, which are characterized by a range of methods, including X-ray Rietveld refinement and the Williamson–Hall approach, revealing the presence of significant inhomogeneous strain associated with the cubic phase. However, X-ray pair distribution function measurements clearly show the local structure is lower symmetry than cubic. This apparent inconsistency is resolved by examining 3D Bragg coherent diffraction images of selected nanocrystals, which show the existence of ≈50 nm-sized domains, which are interpreted as tetragonal twins, and yet cause the average crystalline structure to appear cubic. The ability of these twin boundaries to migrate under the influence of electric fields explains the dielectric anomaly for the nanocrystalline phase.     

Highly Efficient Quasi 2D Blue Perovskite Electroluminescence Leveraging a Dual Ligand Composition

Perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) are advancing because of their superior external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) and color purity. Still, additional work is needed for blue PeLEDs to achieve the same benchmarks as the other visible colors. This study demonstrates an extremely efficient blue PeLED with a 488 nm peak emission, a maximum luminance of 8600 cd m⁻², and a maximum EQE of 12.2% by incorporating the double-sided ethane-1,2-diammonium bromide (EDBr₂) ligand salt along with the long-chain ligand methylphenylammonium chloride (MeCl). The EDBr₂ successfully improves the interaction between 2D perovskite layers by reducing the weak van der Waals interaction and creating a Dion–Jacobson (DJ) structure. Whereas the pristine sample (without EDBr₂) is inhibited by small stacking number (n) 2D phases with nonradiative recombination regions that diminish the PeLED performance, adding EDBr₂ successfully enables better energy transfer from small n phases to larger n phases. As evidenced by photoluminescence (PL), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) characterization, EDBr₂ improves the morphology by reduction of pinholes and passivation of defects, subsequently improving the efficiencies and operational lifetimes of quasi-2D blue PeLEDs.     

Tin naphthalocyanine complexes for infrared absorption in organic photovoltaic cells

In this work, we examine the optical properties of tin naphthalocyanine dichloride (SnNcCl₂), and its performance as an electron donor material in organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs). As an active material, SnNcCl₂ is attractive for its narrow energy gap which facilitates optical absorption past a wavelength of λ = 1100 nm. We demonstrate a power conversion efficiency of η_P = (1.2 ± 0.1)% under simulated AM1.5G solar illumination at 100 mW/cm² using the electron donor–acceptor pairing of SnNcCl₂ and C₆₀ in a bilayer device architecture. While some phthalocyanines have been previously used to improve infrared absorption, this is often realized through the formation of molecular dimers. In SnNcCl₂, the infrared absorption is intrinsic to the molecule, arising as a result of the extended conjugation. Consequently, it is expected that SnNcCl₂ could be utilized in bulk heterojunction OPVs without sacrificing infrared absorption.     

APPLICATION OF THE POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION TO THE RAPID ANALYSIS OF BREWERY YEAST STRAINS

The rapid discrimination of closely-related Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains can pose a significant problem to breweries, in particular where closely related strains are being used simultaneously to manufacture different products. In this study, two PCR approaches have been examined to assess their usefulness for the discrimination of brewery ale and lager yeast strains. PCR using arbitrary primers (RAPD PCR) was found unsuitable for such an application since the DNA profiles generated from brewery strains were generally found to be identical, due presumably to the close genetic relatedness of these yeasts. In contrast, PCR using δ sequence primers could rapidly differentiate between many ale and lager strains and characteristic profiles for these were generated. This method could also be applied directly to yeasts isolated from brewery worts or from active dried yeast preparations. Results of such analyses were available within the working day.     

Accelerated image processing on FPGAs

The Cameron project has developed a language called single assignment C (SA-C), and a compiler for mapping image-based applications written in SA-C to field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The paper tests this technology by implementing several applications in SA-C and compiling them to an Annapolis Microsystems (AMS) WildStar board with a Xilinx XV2000E FPGA. The performance of these applications on the FPGA is compared to the performance of the same applications written in assembly code or C for an 800 MHz Pentium III. (Although no comparison across processors is perfect, these chips were the first of their respective classes fabricated at 0.18 microns, and are therefore of comparable ages.) We find that applications written in SA-C and compiled to FPGAs are between 8 and 800 times faster than the equivalent program run on the Pentium III.     

The natural food grade inhibitor, lacticin 3147, reduced the incidence of mastitis after experimental challenge with Streptococcus dysgalactiae in nonlactating dairy cows.

Lacticin 3147 is a broad-spectrum bacteriocin produced by the food-grade organism Lactococcus lactis. Lacticin 3147 is active at a neutral pH and has been shown to be bactericidal to streptococci and staphylococci in vitro. The effectiveness of an intramammary teat seal formulation, and a teat seal containing lacticin 3147 was evaluated at drying off in 68 uninfected quarters of 18 cows. Following infusion of either teat seal or lacticin 3147 combined with teat seal, a deliberate infection challenge of Streptococcus dysgalactiae (approximately equal to 1.5 x 10(4) cfu per teat) was administered by direct inoculation into the teat sinus. During an 8-d experimental period following inoculation, 61% of control quarters and 6% of the treatment quarters either developed clinical mastitis or were shedding the challenge organism. Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA polymerase chain reaction genetic typing was used to confirm that both the new infections and the bacteria surviving in the teats at the end of the experiment were the challenge strain. The combination of teat seal and lacticin 3147 was well tolerated within the udder and elicited only a temporary increase in somatic cell count to 5.7 x 10(5)/ml (88 h after infusion) in a previously uninfected lactating udder quarter. Therefore, we concluded that this nonantibiotic approach to mastitis prevention may contribute to a reduction in the routine application of antibiotics at drying off in the future.     

Comparing the streaming of FGS encoded video at different aggregation levels: frame,GoP, and scene

Fine granularity scalability (FGS), a new coding technique that has recently been added to the MPEG‐4 video coding standard, allows for the flexible scaling of each individual video frame at very fine granularity. This flexibility makes FGS video very well suited for rate‐distortion optimized streaming mechanisms, which minimize the distortion (i.e. maximize the quality) of the streamed video by transmitting the optimal number of bits for each individual frame. The per‐frame optimization of the transmission schedule, however, puts a significant computational burden on video servers and intermediate streaming gateways. In this paper we investigate the rate‐distortion optimized streaming at different video frame aggregation levels. We find that compared to the optimization for each individual video frame, optimization at the level of video scenes reduces the computational effort dramatically, while reducing the video quality only very slightly. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Making Large‐Area Titanium Disulfide Films at Reduced Temperature by Balancing the Kinetics of Sulfurization and Roughening

The synthesis of large‐area TiS₂ thin films is reported at temperatures as low as 500 °C using a scalable two‐step method of metal film deposition followed by sulfurization in an H₂S gas furnace. It is demonstrated that the lowest‐achievable sulfurization temperature depends strongly on the oxygen background during sulfurization. This dependence arises because Ti? O bonds present a substantial kinetic and thermodynamic barrier to TiS₂ formation. Lowering the sulfurization temperature is important to make smooth films, and to enable integration of TiS₂ and related transition metal dichalcogenides—including metastable phases and alloys—into device technology.     

Algorithms to determine exact blocking probabilities for multiratetree networks

A circuit-switched network consisting of multiple-access links connected to a common link is considered. Each call requires circuits on one access link and on the common link. The network supports multiple classes of calls where each class specifies a bandwidth requirement, an arrival rate, and a holding-time distribution. Based on a product-form solution for these networks, four algorithms are developed to determine the exact blocking probability for each of the classes. The first two algorithms are based on convolution, the third on the fast Fourier transform, and the fourth on a recursion due to J.S. Kaufman (1981) and to J.W. Roberts (1981). Complexity bounds and numerical results demonstrate that these algorithms can determine blocking probabilities in reasonable CPU time for networks with thousands of circuits