A new method for manufacturing nanostructured electrodes on glass substrates

The present paper describes a new method for manufacturing a nanostructured porous layer of TiO₂ on a conducting glass substrate for use in a dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cell. The method involves deposition of a layer of semiconductor particles onto a conducting substrate and compression of the particle layer to form a mechanically stable, electrically conducting, and porous nanostructured film at room temperature. Photoelectrochemical characteristics and morphology of the resulting nanostructured films are presented. The potential use of the new manufacturing method in the future applications of nanostructured systems is discussed.     

Crystallographic electron microscopy

We present a family of techniques for the transmission electron microscope that generate surface zone-axis patterns. These patterns display the variation of the diffracted-beam intensity as a function of the angle of the incident electrons. The conditions of the experiments are those of reflection high-energy electron diffraction at near grazing incidence. The techniques are: surface convergent-beam diffraction, a surface analogue of the Tanaka method and a modified double-rocking scheme. Experimental results are presented for diffraction from surfaces of MgO and MoS₂. We anticipate that surface zone-axis patterns (surface ZAPs) will become established as an important tool for surface characterization, especially when used in conjunction with high-resolution surface imaging and surface energy loss spectroscopy; surface ZAPs may be expected to play, in surface analysis, a role analogous to that played by convergent-beam diffraction in normal transmission electron microscopy.     

Putting it all together – Formal verification of the VAMP

In the verified architecture microprocessor (VAMP) project we have designed, functionally verified, and synthesized a processor with full DLX instruction set, delayed branch, Tomasulo scheduler, maskable nested precise interrupts, pipelined fully IEEE compatible dual precision floating point unit with variable latency, and separate instruction and data caches. The verification has been carried out in the theorem proving system PVS. The processor has been implemented on a Xilinx FPGA. A shorter version of this article with the title “Instantiating uninterpreted functional units and memory system: functional verification of the VAMP” appeared in [8]. The work reported here was done while all the authors were with Saarland University.     

Intrinsic Motivation Systems for Autonomous Mental Development

Exploratory activities seem to be intrinsically rewarding for children and crucial for their cognitive development. Can a machine be endowed with such an intrinsic motivation system? This is the question we study in this paper, presenting a number of computational systems that try to capture this drive towards novel or curious situations. After discussing related research coming from developmental psychology, neuroscience, developmental robotics, and active learning, this paper presents the mechanism of Intelligent Adaptive Curiosity, an intrinsic motivation system which pushes a robot towards situations in which it maximizes its learning progress. This drive makes the robot focus on situations which are neither too predictable nor too unpredictable, thus permitting autonomous mental development. The complexity of the robot's activities autonomously increases and complex developmental sequences self-organize without being constructed in a supervised manner. Two experiments are presented illustrating the stage-like organization emerging with this mechanism. In one of them, a physical robot is placed on a baby play mat with objects that it can learn to manipulate. Experimental results show that the robot first spends time in situations which are easy to learn, then shifts its attention progressively to situations of increasing difficulty, avoiding situations in which nothing can be learned. Finally, these various results are discussed in relation to more complex forms of behavioral organization and data coming from developmental psychology     

Whole-body 2-[18F]-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) for accurate staging of Hodgkin's disease

BACKGROUND: Staging of Hodgkin's disease (HD) is accomplished by a variety of invasive and non-invasive modalities. This prospective study was undertaken to investigate the value of whole-body positron emission tomography (PET) with 2-[18F]-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) in defining regions involved by lymphoma compared with conventional staging methods in patients with HD. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Fourty-four newly diagnosed patients with HD underwent FDG-PET as part of their initial staging work-up. PET findings were correlated with findings of conventional staging including computed tomography, ultrasound, bone scanning, bone marrow biopsy, liver biopsy and laparotomy. When results of FDG-PET differed to those obtained by conventional methods reevaluation was performed by biopsy, if possible, or magnetic resonance imaging. RESULTS: The results of FDG-PET were compared with three hundred twenty-one conventional staging procedures performed in 44 patients. FDG-PET was positive in 38 of 44 (86%) patients at sites of documented disease. PET detected additional lesions in five cases previously not identified by conventional staging methods. In another case a nodal lesion suspect on CT was negative at FDG-PET and was settled as true negative by biopsy. As a consequence of PET findings five patients had to be upstaged and one patient had to be downstaged, resulting in changes in treatment strategy in all six cases (14%). FDG-PET failed to visualize sites of HD in four patients. In two of our patients a false positive PET result was obtained. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that FDG-PET provides an imaging technique that appears to visualize involved lesions in most patients with HD and is useful in the management of these patients.     

Bathymetry and siltation rate for Dokan Reservoir,Iraq

The Dokan Reservoir dam is a concrete cylindrical arch with gravity abutments, located on the Lesser Zab River about 60 km from the city of Sulaimani in north‐eastern Iraq. A bathymetric survey was conducted in November 2014 for a period of 10 days, using an echo sounder of 200‐kHz single beam. The survey results indicated an annual average sediment deposition of 3.8 million m³. Thirty‐two sediment samples were collected from the reservoir bed. The ratio of gravel, sand, silt and clay was 15:14:48:23, respectively. The reservoir bed is covered mainly with silt. The sediments are composed of silty clay (77.6%), silty sandy clay (10%), sandy gravely silty clay (1.2%) and gravely sandy silty clay (1%).     

Catalytic Materials for High-Temperature Combustion

Catalytic combustion, as an alternative to conventional thermal combustion, has received considerable attention during the past decade. Research efforts have been promoted by the need to meet governmental demands concerning pollution and the wish to use energy sources more efficiently. The two main advantages offered by catalytic combustors over flame combustors apply to these goals:

1. Catalytic combustion can be carried out over a wide range of fuel concentrations in air and at low temperatures.
2. These low temperatures result in attaining NO, emission levels substantially lower than possible with conventional combustors.