Electroluminescence from phenylenevinylene-based polymer blends

The electroluminescent behaviour of films of poly(phenylphenylenevinylene) (PPPV), of PPPV blended with polystyrene (PS) and of PS doped with oligo(phenylenevinylene) sandwiched between indium–tin oxide (ITO) and Al contacts has been investigated. Polymer blending increases the relative quantum efficiency by up to two orders of magnitude. Studying the cell performance under application of rectangular voltage pulses as a function of temperature indicates that (i) hole injection at the ITO contact occurs by tunnelling, (ii) tunnel injection of electrons at the cathode is promoted by a space charge field across an interfacial Al₂O₃ layers and (iii) leakage of holes through the cathodic barrier is the main loss mechanism for holes.     

Importance Sampling Microfacet‐Based BSDFs using the Distribution of Visible Normals

We present a new approach to microfacet‐based BSDF importance sampling. Previously proposed sampling schemes for popular analytic BSDFs typically begin by choosing a microfacet normal at random in a way that is independent of direction of incident light. To sample the full BSDF using these normals requires arbitrarily large sample weights leading to possible fireflies. Additionally, at grazing angles nearly half of the sampled normals face away from the incident ray and must be rejected, making the sampling scheme inefficient. Instead, we show how to use the distribution of visible normals directly to generate samples, where normals are weighted by their projection factor toward the incident direction. In this way, no backfacing normals are sampled and the sample weights contain only the shadowing factor of outgoing rays (and additionally a Fresnel term for conductors). Arbitrarily large sample weights are avoided and variance is reduced. Since the BSDF depends on the microsurface model, we describe our sampling algorithm for two models: the V‐cavity and the Smith models. We demonstrate results for both isotropic and anisotropic rough conductors and dielectrics with Beckmann and GGX distributions.     

Extracting Microfacet‐based BRDF Parameters from Arbitrary Materials with Power Iterations

We introduce a novel fitting procedure that takes as input an arbitrary material, possibly anisotropic, and automatically converts it to a microfacet BRDF. Our algorithm is based on the property that the distribution of microfacets may be retrieved by solving an eigenvector problem that is built solely from backscattering samples. We show that the eigenvector associated to the largest eigenvalue is always the only solution to this problem, and compute it using the power iteration method. This approach is straightforward to implement, much faster to compute, and considerably more robust than solutions based on nonlinear optimizations. In addition, we provide simple conversion procedures of our fits into both Beckmann and GGX roughness parameters, and discuss the advantages of microfacet slope space to make our fits editable. We apply our method to measured materials from two large databases that include anisotropic materials, and demonstrate the benefits of spatially varying roughness on texture mapped geometric models.     

Robust pose estimation and recognition using non-gaussian modeling of appearance subspaces

We present an original appearance model that generalizes the usual Gaussian visual subspace model to non-Gaussian and nonparametric distributions. It can be useful for the modeling and recognition of images under difficult conditions such as large occlusions and cluttered backgrounds. Inference under the model is efficiently solved using the mean shift algorithm     

Production of 2,3-butanediol from diverse saccharides via fermentation

The present study aimed to evaluate the potential use of whey to produce 2,3-BD via the fermentation of lactose and its monosaccharides, glucose and galactose, in a synthetic culture medium (medium 9, M9) using a modified strain of Escherichia coli K12 MG1655 (E. coli JFR12) at a 0.1 L/L (10 vol%) inoculum ratio, 37 °C, atmospheric pressure, an initial pH 7.4, and 100 rpm for 72 h varying the saccharide concentration from 12.5, 25, and 50 g/L. The 2,3-BD yield was ∼80 % of the theoretical yield using 25 g/L of glucose and lactose, corresponding to 0.38 g/g saccharides at a fermentation time of 48 h (glucose) and 72 h (lactose). However, the 2,3-BD yield was halved (0.19 g/g galactose), fermenting 25 g/L of galactose at 48 h. Taking into account these results, two important conclusions were determined: i) E. coli JFR12 could transform galactose into 2,3-BD although its yield was half of the yield observed with glucose at 48 h; and ii) E. coli JFR12 was as efficient as other natural 2,3-BD producers such as Klebsiella species fermenting lactose. However, the E. coli strain has the advantage of being an innocuous strain. To the best of our knowledge, there is no other study presenting the production of 2,3-BD from galactose and lactose with a genetically modified E. coli strain.     

Investigation of hydrodynamic test systems for the selection of high flow rate resistant materials

Flow-dependent corrosion phenomena can be studied in the laboratory and on a pilot plant scale by a number of methods, of which the rotating disc, the rotating cylinder, the coaxial cylinder and the tubular flow test are the most important. These methods are discussed with regard to mass transfer characteristics and their applicability to flow-dependent corrosion processes and erosion corrosion. To exemplify the application of such methods to materials selection for seawater pumps, corrosion data of non-alloyed and low alloy cast iron are presented.Nomenclature (Sh) Sherwood number - (Re) Reynolds number - n exponential of Reynolds number - shear stress (Pa) - dynamic viscosity (Pa s) - du/dy velocity gradient (s^–1) - mass density (kg m^–3) - f friction factor - (Sc) Schmidt number - i _cor,i _c corrosion current density (mA cm^–2) - i _lim limiting current density (mA cm^–2) - u _cor corrosion rate (mm y^–1 or g m^–2d^–1) - u flow rate (ms^–1) - k constant - u _ph phase boundary rate (gm^–2d^–1) - z number of electrons exchanged - F Faraday number (96 487 As mol^–1) - D diffusion coefficient (m²s^–1) - c concentration (kmol m^–3) - L characteristic length (m) - kinematic viscosity (m² s^–1) - h gap width (m) - v volume rate (m³s^–1) - m rotation rate (min^–1) - u _rel relative rate of co-axial cylinders (m s^–1) - _H electrode potential versus SHE (V)     

Three-dimensionally confined excitons and biexcitons in submonolayer-CdSe/ZnSe superlattices

We report on structural and optical investigations of submonolayer-CdSe/ZnSe superlattices with varying thicknesses of the ZnSe spacer layers. High-resolution electron microscopy images demonstrate the formation of two-dimensional nanoscale CdSe islands for submonolayer-CdSe depositions. The vertical island arrangement is anti-correlated for spacer layer thicknesses exceeding 30Å, while predominantly vertically correlated growth occurs for thinner spacers. The different vertical ordering of the CdSe islands results in two clearly distinguishable lines in photoluminescence and optical reflectance spectra, which are attributed to excitons localized in quantum dots (QDs) formed by vertically coupled and uncoupled (Cd,Zn)Se islands, respectively. δ-like emission of single QDs is demonstrated and the different carrier localization in uncoupled and coupled QDs is reflected in the polarization of the edge emission. Stimulated emission and resonant waveguiding effects are observed for both states. At the highest excitation densities, we observe saturation of the stimulated emission in edge geometry attributed to saturation of localized states.