Transparent Structure Research Articles

Chromatic Sensor to Determine Oxygen Presence for Applications in Intelligent Packaging.

A chromatic sensor has been designed for the detection of oxygen in package headspace. The sensor is based on the redox change of methylene blue (MB) to its leuco form. Its formulation includes the pigment, glycerol, as a sacrificial electron donor, TiO2, as a photocatalyst and ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH), as a structural polymer matrix. The final sensor design that allows its manufacture by conventional printing and laminating technologies consists of the sensing polymer matrix (MB-EVOH) sandwiched in a suitable transparent multilayer structure. The outer layers protect the sensor from the external atmosphere and allow visualization of the colour. The inner layer is sufficiently opaque to facilitate sensor reading from the outside, is thick enough to avoid direct contact with food (functional barrier), and is oxygen-permeable to expose the sensing material to the internal package atmosphere. In the absence of oxygen, the sensor becomes white by irradiation with halogen lamps in less than 60 s. All components are substances permitted for food contact except the pigment, but specific migration analysis showed no trace of migration thanks to the functional barrier included in the design.

Portable and platform-independent MR pulse sequence programs.

To introduce a new sequence description format for vendor-independent MR sequences that include all calculation logic portably. To introduce a new MRI sequence development approach which utilizes flexibly reusable modules. The proposed sequence description contains a sequence module hierarchy for loop and group logic, which is enhanced by a novel strategy for performing efficient parameter and pulse shape calculation. These calculations are powered by a flow graph structure. By using the flow graph, all calculations are performed with no redundancy and without requiring preprocessing. The generation of this interpretable structure is a separate step that combines MRI techniques while actively considering their context. The driver interface is slim and highly flexible through scripting support. The sequences do not require any vendor-specific compiling or processing step. A vendor-independent frontend for sequence configuration can be used. Tests that ensure physical feasibility of the sequence are integrated into the calculation logic. The framework was used to define a set of standard sequences. Resulting images were compared to respective images acquired with sequences provided by the device manufacturer. Images were acquired using a standard commercial MRI system. The approach produces configurable, vendor-independent sequences, whose configurability enables rapid prototyping. The transparent data structure simplifies the process of sharing reproducible sequences, modules, and techniques.

Flexible sensors platform for determination of cadmium concentration in soil samples

Efficient monitoring and measuring concentrations of heavy metals in soil is one of the utmost needs in environmental monitoring. This work describes a portable sensors platform for determination of concentration of heavy metals, in our case cadmium, in soil samples. Using a cost-effective xurographic PVC foils-based technique, transparent multilayer interdigitated gold-electrodes structure, with two sensors, was fabricated. The transparent sensor platform was tested measuring capacitance by means of an Impedance Analyzer and the obtained results indicated that capacitance increases with increased concentration of cadmium in soil sample. The proposed platform in combination with our portable impedance analyzer, enable fast, “green” on-site measurement of heavy metals in soil, thus, avoiding the use of some toxic chemicals necessary for sample preparation and analysis by commercial analytical instrumentations, providing less negative effects on humans’ health and environment.

FABIO-The Construction of the Food and Agriculture Biomass Input-Output Model.

Harvested biomass is linked to final consumption by networks of processes and actors that convert and distribute food and nonfood goods. Achieving a sustainable resource metabolism of the economy is an overarching challenge which manifests itself in a number of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Modeling the physical dimensions of biomass conversion and distribution networks is essential to understanding the characteristics, drivers, and dynamics of the socio-economic biomass metabolism. In this paper, we present the Food and Agriculture Biomass Input–Output model (FABIO), a set of multiregional supply, use and input–output tables in physical units, that document the complex flows of agricultural and food products in the global economy. The model assembles FAOSTAT statistics reporting crop production, trade, and utilization in physical units, supplemented by data on technical and metabolic conversion efficiencies, into a consistent, balanced, input–output framework. FABIO covers 191 countries and 130 agriculture, food and forestry products from 1986 to 2013. The physical supply use tables offered by FABIO provide a comprehensive, transparent, and flexible structure for organizing data representing flows of materials within metabolic networks. They allow tracing of biomass flows and embodied environmental pressures along global supply chains at an unprecedented level of product and country detail and can help to answer a range of questions regarding environment, agriculture, and trade. Here we apply FABIO to the case of cropland footprints and show the evolution of consumption-based cropland demand in China, the E.U., and the U.S.A. for plant-based and livestock-based food and nonfood products.

Quantification of corneal transparency in post‐mortem human corneas using laser scatter image analysis

BackgroundThe cornea is a highly transparent structure covering the anterior one‐fifth of the eyeball. The suitability of post‐mortem donor corneas for keratoplasty is currently qualitatively assessed. This makes inferences prone to bias and subjective variability. This study aimed to develop a simple, feasible and cost‐effective method to quantify corneal transparency.MethodsAn artificial anterior chamber was modified to provide a central transparent passage and a standardised pressure segment. All corneas graded ‘fair’ were included in this study. The corneoscleral buttons were mounted on the modified artificial anterior chamber. The mounted chamber was held in a horizontal position at a fixed distance from a white projection screen. The laser source was placed in alignment with an artificial anterior chamber so that it passed through the centre of the cornea. A camera mounted on a tripod stand was placed at a prefixed distance. An image of the scattered laser spot that formed after the laser passed through the mounted cornea on the screen was captured with a single digital camera and standardised settings. Image analysis was performed using ImageJ, an open platform for scientific image analysis. The average red pixel intensity, max intensity, and full‐width half max were calculated.ResultsThe average red intensity was 132.45 ± 6.65 SD. The mean for max intensity was 51.1 ± 3.78 SD and the full‐width half max 787.7 ± 84.7 SD.ConclusionLaser quantification is a simple and cost‐effective method of quantifying corneal transparency. The study lends proof to the principle involved.

Financial Potential in the Context of Sustainable Development of Machine-Building Enterprises

The development of the machine-building complex is essential in the process of Russian economy functioning. An important aspect of the machine-building enterprise functioning being a key element of the complex is sustainable development. The necessary component to support the development is financial potential. The article studies issues of providing finance potential of Russian machine-building enterprises. The authors analyzed their finance standing and investment climate. They showed the position of Russia in the international rating by the level of competitiveness, which depends on the innovation status, the development of business and finance market. It was grounded that in order to decrease finance risks and to raise competitiveness of machine-building enterprises it could be necessary to use an effective mechanism of optimization of line of risk factors impact on the system of managing the finance potential, which must have a simple and transparent structure eliminating extra links, overlapping of functions and watering responsibility for fulfilling fixed tasks. Policy of import-substitution depends directly on machine-building, which is a driving industry of the industrial revolution and a core of the highly-technological sector of Russian economy.

Volume-Based Assessment of Erosion Patterns around a Hydrodynamic Transparent Offshore Structure

The present article presents results of a laboratory study on the assessment of erosion patterns around a hydrodynamic transparent offshore foundation exposed to combined waves and currents. The model tests were conducted under irregular, long-crested waves in a scale of 1:30 in a wave-current basin. A terrestrial 3D laser scanner was used to acquire data of the sediment surface around the foundation structure. Tests have been conducted systematically varying from wave- to current-dominated conditions. Different volume analyzing methods are introduced, which can be related for any offshore or coastal structure to disclose physical processes in complex erosion patterns. Empirical formulations are proposed for the quantification of spatially eroded sediment volumes and scour depths in the near-field and vicinity of the structure. Findings from the present study agree well with in-situ data stemming from the field. Contrasting spatial erosion development between experimental and in-situ data determines a stable maximum of erosion intensity at a distance of 1.25 A, 1.25 times the structure’s footprint A, as well as a global scour extent of 2.1–2.7 A within the present study and about 2.7–2.8 A from the field. By this means, a structure-induced environmental footprint as a measure for erosion of sediment affecting marine habitat is quantified.

3D Printing Ionogel Auxetic Frameworks for Stretchable Sensors

AbstractIonogels are an emerging class of soft materials that exhibit ionic conductivity and thermal stability without the need to replenish ions or the addition of conductive particle fillers. An ionogel ink is reported for direct‐write 3D printing to fabricate conductive structures that can vary in the printed object geometries. This approach relies on a shear‐thinning ionogel ink that can be extruded to afford self‐supporting constructs. After a brief UV cure, the printed construct is transformed into a mechanically tough, transparent structure that is ionically conductive. Upon application of stretching and twisting loads, the 3D‐printed objects exhibit detectable changes in conductivity. To demonstrate the versatility of rapid prototyping with the ionogel inks, an auxetic structure is 3D printed and tested as a strain sensor. The printed auxetic structure exhibits an electrical response to strain, but also demonstrates increased extensibility and operational range in comparison to a casted bulk film with the same outer dimensions.

X-ray shielding structural and properties design for the porous transparent BaSO4/cellulose nanocomposite membranes

Since effective shielding of X-rays was required in medical, aviation and nuclear fields, a novel X-ray shielding BaSO4/cellulose nanocomposite membrane (BSCM) material with porous transparent structure has been designed. The effects of carboxylated nano-BaSO4 (BS) addition on the physical and morphological properties of the cellulose membrane (CM) were investigated. Meanwhile, the influence of X-ray shielding capacity was studied by different layers of composite membranes and the shielding mechanism of the X-ray was also discussed. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images displayed the aggregations of BS in the cellulose surface. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) showed that the incorporation of BS into CM caused molecular interactions between CM and BS. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) indicated that the load of BS contributed little to the specific surface area and pore size. Meanwhile, the water vapor transmission rates (WVTR) also stayed at the same level before and after the binding of BS. The swelling ratios, weight loss ratios and mechanical property were decreased along with the addition of BS. The radiation shielding ability was enhanced. Therefore, this work was regarded as a possible example that the BSCM was designed as X-ray radiation shielding material or sandwich filler material in the implication of radiation shielding glass.

Aetiology and risk factors of bacterial corneal ulcer in tribal population of Jharkhand

Introduction: Corneal is a transparent avascular structure forming one sixth of outer fibrous coat and responsible for two third of refractive power of eye. Breach in epithelium with involvement of stroma either due to infective or inflammatory cause lead to painful condition called as corneal ulcer. Purpose: to find aetiology and predisposing factors of corneal ulcer in tribal population of Jharkhand.Materials and Methods: This was a prospective observational study conducted at tertiary care centre of Jharkhand from May 2017 to May 2019. All cases of bacterial corneal ulcer were examined under slit lamp examination. Scraping of ulcer bed was done and was sent to microbiological department for further evaluation. Results: A total of 78 patients identified with bacterial corneal ulcer of which 58.97% were males, 37.17% were farmers. Trauma was seen as major predisposing factor in 75.64% cases. The major etiological agent was found in our study was Staphylococcus aureus (60.25%) followed by Pseudomonas in 16.66% and mixed infection in 7.69%.Conclusion: Study suggests major etiological agent was Staphylococcus aureus and major risk factor was trauma.

Optical characteristics of refractive-index-matching diffusion layer in organic light-emitting diodes

We developed a diffusion layer with a refractive index-matching layer added to a transparent nanoscale polymer-based structure to obtain its effective scattering effects. The diffusion layer had higher haze when the refractive index-matching layer to a higher refractive index was used. This diffusion layer was applied to conventional organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and micro-cavity OLEDs (MC-OLEDs) to evaluate the characteristics. When a diffusion layer was applied to conventional OLEDs, the external quantum efficiency (EQE) was 31.1% higher than that of the device without a diffusion layer due to the reduction of the substrate mode, and the viewing angle characteristic was also improved. Then, when the diffusion layer was applied to the MC-OLEDs, all devices showed similar EQE values regardless of the presence or absence of the diffusion layer, and the viewing-angle-dependent characteristics were greatly improved by the diffusion layer. Furthermore, when the diffusion layer was used with polarizer film, the black color implementation was not affected by the polarizer film, proving that it is applicable to actual OLED display products.

A Corpus-based Linguistic Analysis of Latin Frequentative Verbs

Considering that Latin frequentative verbs have transparent morphological structure (the supine stem of the base verb concatenated with the frequentative -itare suffix and regular first conjugation inflectional endings), one would assume that the meaning of each such verb is related in a predictable way to that of its corresponding base verb, and that all members of the frequentative class share semantic entailments. However, frequentative verbs resist a uniform semantic analysis and can mean something entirely unpredictable from the sum of their parts, and traditional and contemporary definitions of frequentatives ignore the degree of idiomaticity between frequentative form and function and are based on limited corpus data. This paper provides a synchronic, corpus-based linguistic analysis of frequentative verbs in comparison to their base forms from both derivational (source-oriented) and usage-based (product-oriented) perspectives in order to explore the nature of the Latin frequentative. The paper concludes that a usage-based, product-oriented treatment of the data provides a more straightforward characterization of Latin frequentative verbs, highlighting the interconnectedness of morphology, syntax, and semantics.

Revising recurrent neural networks from a granular perspective

In this paper, we formally deduce a new computational model, with a recurrent structure, by means of data granulation. The proposed scheme can be regarded as an Echo State Network (ESN), with an additional granular layer. ESNs have been recently revisited in the context of deep learning. In view of such a state-of-the-art, and coherently with the concept of data granulation, the aim herein is to propose a more efficient and transparent structure. The stability of the proposed scheme is formally discussed. The performance is shown by means of several benchmarks against the state-of-the-art methods. The proposed architecture exhibits a lower computational cost and a higher accuracy.

67‐1: Invited Paper: Design of an Advanced Bottom‐emission AMOLED Display for TVs with High‐PPI and Large Size

Top‐gate typed amorphous‐indium‐gallium‐zinc‐oxide (a‐IGZO) thin‐film‐transistors (TFTs) and a technologically advanced transparent storage capacitance structure have been successfully employed in pixel circuits. The design procedure was systematically studied. Eventually, a 15‐inch gate‐driver‐on‐array (GOA) drived active matrix organic light‐emitting diode (AMOLED) display was demonstrated with a high resolution of 147 ppi.

Electrospun hollow CuO modified V2O5 nano-string of pearls with improved acetone sensitivity

Novel hollow structure based on CuO modified V2O5 nano-string of pearls (V2O5/CuO NSPs) were synthesized via electrospinning technique. The achieved V2O5/CuO NSPs exhibit interesting shapes of string of pearls, endowed with transparent and hollow structure under TEM observation. The V2O5/CuO NSPs sensors demonstrated that the sensitivity (Ra/Rg = 8.8 at 500 ppm) towards acetone was 3.2 times as high as that of pristine V2O5 nanofibers (NFs) (Ra/Rg = 2.5 at 500 ppm) at 440 °C. The improved sensitivity may be ascribed to the formation of V2O5/CuO p-n heterojunctions at the interfaces, which elevates the barrier height and enlarges depleted electron region.

Corneal Endothelial Cell Changes in Type 2 Diabetic Patients

Background: Diabetic eye disease is an end-organ response to the effects of the condition on the human system. The cornea is a transparent structure protecting the anterior one-sixth of the eye. Chronic hyperglycemia can affect the corneal layers shape and functions that responsible for corneal transparency. Objectives: Comparison of the changes in corneal endothelium namely, cell density (CD), percentage polymegathism, cell volume (CV) and pleomorphism (6A) along with central corneal thickness (CCT) in patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus with normal age and sex- matched subjects. Patients and methods: A case-control study in Sayed Galal University Hospital. 20 eyes of type 2 diabetic patients and 20 eyes of age and sex matched controls were included in the study. Age, gender, other demographic data, and relevant diabetic history were obtained. Full evaluation of both cases and controls including both anterior and posterior segment complete evaluation was done. Non- contact specular microscopy was used to study the corneal endothelial cells. Results: The mean endothelial cell density (ECD) was non-significantly lower in type 2 diabetics compared to controls (p value = 0.751.). There was a highly significant reduction in hexagonally in the cases compared to controls and highly significant increase in coefficient of variation in the cases compared to controls Conclusion: This study acknowledged that type 2 diabetes causes a significant decrease of hexagonality and increase CV (polymegathism). However, non-significant reduction of ECD was documented

Synergetic Transparent Electrode Architecture for Efficient Non-Fullerene Flexible Organic Solar Cells with >12% Efficiency.

Flexible organic solar cells (OSCs) are considered one key component in wearable, intelligent electronics due to the unique capacity for highly flexible renewable energy sources. However, it is urgently required to enhance their efficiency, as it is far inferior to that of their conventional, glass-based counterparts. To boost the performance of flexible OSCs on plastic substrates, we here present a synergetic transparent electrode structure, which combines electrically conductive silver nanowires, a sol-gel-derived ZnO planarization layer, and imprinted light-trapping nanostructures. This synergetic composite electrode exhibits good properties in terms of optical transparency, electrical conductivity, mechanical flexibility, and low-temperature processability. As a result, the single-junction non-fullerene-based flexible OSCs achieve a power conversion efficiency exceeding 12% due to the synergetic interplay between broadband light trapping and suppressed charge recombination loss. Moreover, these flexible OSCs are repeatedly bendable in both inward and outward bending directions, retaining over 60% of the initial efficiency after 1000 cycles of the bending test at a 3.0 mm radius. These results convey a clear depiction of the practicality of flexible OSCs in a variety of high-performance flexible applications.

Switching and synaptic characteristics of AZO/ZnO/ITO valence change memory device

This paper reports the resistive switching and synaptic capability of AZO/ZnO/ITO transparent and flexiblevalence change memory device structure. The device performs stable endurance for more than 50 cycles with sufficient ON/OFF ratio of one order of magnitude; no intermediate state (data error) is observed during the cycle-to-cycle test. By exploiting the analog switching characteristic of the device and employing identical pulses to the top electrode, a synaptic behavior can be achieved. A low programming voltage of 1.5V is used to modulate the conductance during potentiation and depression which indicate that the device is a logic-compatible. The conduction mechanism during the switching processand the device performance is discussed.

Environmental impact assessment of biomass process chains at early design stages using decision trees

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is generally considered as a suitable methodology for the evaluation of environmental impacts of processes. However, it requires large amount and often inaccessible process data at early design stages. The present study provides an approach to streamline LCA for a broad set of biomass process chains. The proposed method breaks away from conventional LCA work in that the purpose is to support decision at early stages assuming minimal use of data available and points to most dominant LCA impacts, providing useful feedback to process design. The prediction mechanism employs decision trees, which form “if-then rules” using a set of critical parameters of the process chain with respect to various environmental impacts. The models classify products into three classes, namely having low, medium, and high environmental impact. Data for model development were obtained from early design stages and include descriptors of the molecular structure of the product and process chain-related variables corresponding to chemistry, complexity, and generic process conditions. Twenty-three LCA metrics were selected as target attributes, according to the ReCiPe and the cumulative energy demand (CED) methods. A broad set of process chains is derived from the work of Karka et al. (Int J Life Cycle Assess 22(9):1418–1440, 2017). Results demonstrate that the average classification error for the decision trees ranges between 13.4 and 43.8% for the various LCA metrics and multifunctionality approaches. Allocation approaches present a better classification performance (up to 25% error) compared with the substitution approach for LCA metrics, such as climate change, CED, and human health. For the majority of models, low- and high-output classes are characterized by better predictive performance compared with the medium class. The interpretability of selected decision trees is analyzed in terms of pruning levels and “irrational” branches. The results of the application of the decision tress for recently published case studies show for instance that 8 out of 13 cases were correctly classified for CED. The proposed approach provides a first generation of models in the form of computationally inexpensive and easily interpretable decision trees that can be used as pre-screening tools for the environmental assessment of bio-based production ahead of detailed design and conventional LCA approaches. The transparent structure of the decision trees facilitates the identification of critical decision variables providing insights for improvement in terms of process parameters, biomass feedstock, or even targeted product.

Morphological processing without semantics: An ERP study with spoken words

The time-course of morphological processing during spoken word recognition was investigated using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in an auditory lexical decision task. We compared three different types of French words: truly suffixed (e.g., pochette ‘little pocket’ = poche ‘pocket’ + diminutive suffix -ette), pseudo-suffixed (e.g., mouette ‘seagull’ = mou ‘soft’ + pseudo-suffix -ette) and non-suffixed target words (e.g., fortune ‘fortune’ = fort ‘strong’ + non-suffix -une). Suffixed (e.g., mouesse = mou + suffix -esse) and non-suffixed nonwords (e.g., mouipe = mou + non-suffix -ipe) were also tested. The behavioural results showed that participants responded more slowly to non-suffixed words than to truly suffixed and pseudo-suffixed words, but there was no difference between the two suffixed conditions. Moreover, participants made more errors rejecting pseudo-suffixed nonwords than non-suffixed nonwords. In the ERP analyses, T0 was shifted to the end of the embedded stem or pseudo-stem. The ERP results revealed enhanced N400 amplitudes for non-suffixed words compared to truly suffixed and pseudo-suffixed words. Again, there was no difference between the truly and pseudo-suffixed conditions. In addition, we found an increased N400 amplitude for both pseudo-suffixed and non-suffixed nonwords than for words. The latency of the onset of this N400 effect varied between the three experimental conditions: the word-nonword difference occurred earliest in the truly suffixed condition, slightly later in the pseudo-suffixed condition and latest in the non-suffixed condition. Both behavioural and EEG data jointly suggest that spoken words with a genuine morphological structure and words with a pseudo-morphological structure are decomposed into morphemic sub-units. Moreover, the earlier appearance of the N400 effects in the truly suffixed condition indicates that morphological information is more readily available in words with a semantically transparent morphological structure.