Untersuchung des Passivierungsmechanismus von Eisen in Phosphatelektrolyten an erosiv beanspruchten Oberflächen

Investigation into the passivation mechanism of iron in phosphate electrolytes on surfaces exposed to erosive attack On iron electrodes in neutral phosphate electrolytes by continuous solid particle impingement a reaction layer is formed within the transition potential region under anodic polarization. XPS and AES investigations show that the reaction layer formed under impingement will be replaced by an oxide layer during the transition into the passive state under simultaneous decrease of the layer thickness. The active/passive transition in phosphate electrolytes may be attached to the equilibrium potential of the reaction . According to this thermodynamic interpretation of both the active/passive transition and the passive/active transition, respectively on iron in presence of phosphate ions may be described as the Fe(II)/Fe(III)-redox reaction with two solid phases, the iron(II)-phosphate phase and the iron(III)-oxide phase. The increase of the interfacial dynamic processes at the solid/liquid interface causes in consequence of the solid particle impingement that thermodynamic laws govern the course of reactions.     

Graphene Oxide‐Cyclic R10 Peptide Nuclear Translocation Nanoplatforms for the Surmounting of Multiple‐Drug Resistance

Multidrug resistance resulting from a variety of defensive pathways in cancer has become a global concern with a considerable impact on the mortality associated with the failure of traditional chemotherapy. Therefore, further research and new therapies are required to overcome this challenge. In this work, a cyclic R10 peptide (cR₁₀) is conjugated to polyglycerol‐covered nanographene oxide to engineer a nanoplatform for the surmounting of multidrug resistance. The nuclear translocation of the nanoplatform, facilitated by cR₁₀ peptide, and subsequently, a laser‐triggered release of the loaded doxorubicin result in efficient anticancer activity confirmed by both in vitro and in vivo experiments. The synthesized nanoplatform with a combination of different features, including active nucleus‐targeting, high‐loading capacity, controlled release of cargo, and photothermal property, provides a new strategy for circumventing multidrug resistant cancers.     

Tuning the Properties of CZTS Films by Controlling the Process Parameters in Cost-Effective Non-vacuum Technique

Highly dispersive Cu₂ZnSnS₄ (CZTS) nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by a simple solvothermal route. A low cost, non-vacuum method was used to deposit CZTS nanoparticle ink on glass substrates by a doctor blade process followed by selenization in a tube furnace to form Cu₂ZnSn (S,Se)₄ (CZTSSe) layers. Different selenization conditions and particle concentrations were considered in order to improve the crystallinity and surface morphology; the annealing temperature was varied between 400°C and 550°C and the annealing time was varied between 5 min and 20 min in a selenium-nitrogen atmosphere. The influence of annealing conditions on structural, compositional, optical and electrical properties of CZTSSe thin films was studied. An improvement in the structural and surface morphology was observed with increasing of annealing temperature (up to 500°C). An enhancement in the crystallinity and surface morphology were observed for thin films annealed for 10–15 min. Absorption study revealed that the band gap energy of as-deposited CZTS thin film was approximately 1.43 eV, while for CZTSSe thin films it ranged from 1.15 eV to 1.34 eV at different annealing temperatures, and from 1.33 eV to 1.38 eV for different annealing times.     

Hierarchical B-picture mode decision in H.264/SVC

To enable robust video transmission over heterogeneous networks, the hierarchical B-picture prediction structure is employed in the state-of-the-art video coding standard H.264/SVC, aiming to produce scalable bitstreams with various frame rates. However, the exhaustive mode decision process with the hierarchical B-picture structure increases the computational complexity of H.264/SVC encoding dramatically. In this paper, a fast mode decision algorithm is proposed to speed up H.264/SVC encoding with the hierarchical B-picture structure, which is achieved by utilizing macroblock (MB) features, correlation of temporal–spatial neighboring MBs, and the discrepant characteristics of hierarchical layers. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is able to reduce the encoding time of H.264/SVC significantly for video sequences with a wide range of resolutions, and meanwhile the video quality and compression ratio are well preserved.     

Multiview deblurring for 3-D images from light-sheet-based fluorescence microscopy

We propose an algorithm for 3-D multiview deblurring using spatially variant point spread functions (PSFs). The algorithm is applied to multiview reconstruction of volumetric microscopy images. It includes registration and estimation of the PSFs using irregularly placed point markers (beads). We formulate multiview deblurring as an energy minimization problem subject to L1-regularization. Optimization is based on the regularized Lucy-Richardson algorithm, which we extend to deal with our more general model. The model parameters are chosen in a profound way by optimizing them on a realistic training set. We quantitatively and qualitatively compare with existing methods and show that our method provides better signal-to-noise ratio and increases the resolution of the reconstructed images.     

Finding Quadratic Schedules for Affine Recurrence Equations Via Nonsmooth Optimization

Frequently, affine recurrence equations can be scheduled more efficiently by quadratic scheduling functions than by linear scheduling functions. In this paper, the problem of finding optimal quadratic schedules for affine recurrence equations is formulated as a convex nonsmooth programming problem. In particular, sufficient constraints for causality are used generalizing Lamport's condition. In this way, the presented problem formulation becomes independent of the problem size. The research tool AQUAD is described implementing this problem formulation. Several nontrivial examples demonstrate that AQUAD can be effectively used to calculate quadratic schedules for affine recurrence equations. Finally, it is shown how array processors can be synthesized from affine recurrence equations which are scheduled by quadratic functions with a singular Hessian matrix.     

Multifunktionales Batteriespeichersystem

In the national research project “Multifunctional Battery Storage System (MBS)” open questions were answered concerning the technical feasibility and profitability of a grid-connected battery storage system using a vanadium-redox-flow battery in combination with the renewable power generation plants PV and small wind power (Sterrer et al., Multifunktionales Batteriespeichersystem—MBS-Endbericht. Industrielle Forschung im Rahmen der österreichischen Programmlinie Neue Energie 2020, 3. Ausschreibung, noch nicht veröffentlicht, 2013). The technical implementation and the demonstration operation of the pilot plant over a period of two years showed that the battery storage system is suitable for intelligent marketing of renewable energy as well as the provision of system services for grid stabilisation. However, the investigation of different operating strategies of the pilot battery-storage system, a large scale storage system and pooled PV/battery storage systems as virtual power plant for the participation at the energy trading market and energy reserve market showed that all operation strategies being considered in this study may not be profitable in foreseeable future. However, if the costs of the battery storage system can be reduced to about 250 €/kWh until the year 2030, the application of the vanadium-redox-flow battery in particular in large-scale storage plants (e.g. 10 MW, 100 MWh) for the participation at the energy reserve market seems realistic.     

Do ESD fails in systems correlate with IC ESD robustness?

Integrated circuits (ICs) are qualified for their electrostatic discharge (ESD) robustness according to the well-known IC ESD standards Human Body Model, Machine Model, and Charged Device Model in order to guarantee safe handling in ESD protected areas. For electronic systems like mobile phones which are in direct use by consumers, certain robustness against system level ESD is demanded, too. As the ESD test methods of device and system level stress are completely different (waveforms, stress application, operating condition of the DUT, etc.), correlations between models of both worlds are difficult to establish. Therefore, the system vendors more and more demand a specified ESD robustness for devices (ICs) according to an ESD system level standard. Testing ICs to a system level ESD standard requires careful considerations; first ideas are summarized in the new Standard Practice “Human Metal Model” of the ESDA/ANSI. However, the approach of deriving system ESD robustness from IC robustness is currently too much simplified and bears severe potential risks. Nevertheless, there are methodologies and approaches to use IC ESD characterization for defining ESD protection concepts for systems. Appropriate high-current characterization of ICs can be the cornerstone for a successfully optimized system ESD protection.