Semitransparent organic solar cells were fabricated using lamination process. The devices were realized by using two independent substrates with transparent indium-tin-oxide electrode. One substrate was coated with poly(ethylenedioxy-thiophene)/poly(styrenesulfonate) layer and active layer of poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) and (6,6)-phenyl-C61 butyric acid methyl ester mixture. Another substrate was coated with ultra-thin polyethylenimine ethoxylated. The two substrates were laminated using hot press system. The device exhibited semitransparency and showed typical photovoltaic characteristics with open voltage of 0.59 V and short circuit current of 2.9 mA/cm2.

Photon upconversion (UC) is a technique to convert long wavelength light into short wavelength light. UC fluorescence by triplet-triplet annihilation (TTA) follows a mechanism involving two kinds of molecules as sensitizer and emitter. In this study, we constructed the photon UC dyes system that was applicable to weak excitation light and convert the red light into yellow light in high efficiency. The present result will be useful for the purpose of application to optical elements and light medical care.

Organic photoconductors (OPC) have been an important research and development topics for high quality electrophotography. By using electric field induced optical second harmonic generation (EFISHG) measurement, we can probe carrier processes in electrophotographic processes such as photo carrier generation, carrier separation, and carrier transportation for copier image production. We here selectively probe charge generation and accumulation in charge generation layer and charge transport layer in multilayer structure OPCs. We studied charge accumulation in OPC under illumination (wavelength 635nm) of double-layer-type OPC with structure of hole transport layer coated on charge generation layer. The result showed that light absorption efficiently produces free holes and electrons in the charge generation layer, followed by excessive hole accumulation at the CG/CT interface due to photo-conducting effect of CG layer. The short-wavelength irradiation at 405nm induced photovoltaic effect. These results demonstrated that the EFISHG measurement is useful to selectively probe carrier process in one layer of the multilayer OPC and to the discussion of carrier process for electrophotographic image productions.

Copper (Cu) electroless plating was conducted on planar and microstructured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates. In this study, organic thin films terminated with nitrogen (N)-containing groups, e.g. poly (dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) brush (PDMAEMA), aminopropyl trimethoxysilane monolayer (APTES), and polydopamine (PDA) were used to anchor palladium (Pd) catalyst. While electroless plating was successfully promoted on all sample surfaces, PDMAEMA was found to achieve the best adhesion strength to the PDMS surfaces, compared to APTES- and PDA-covered PDMS substrates, due to covalent bonding, anchoring effects of polymer chains as well as high affinity of N atoms to Pd species. Our process was also successfully applied to the electroless plating of microstructured PDMS substrates.

Improvement of output and lifetime is a problem for biofuel cells. A structure was adopted in which gelation mixed with agarose and fuel (fructose) was sandwiched by electrodes made of graphene-coated carbon fiber. The electrode surface not contacting the gel was exposed to air. In addition, grooves were added to the gel surface to further increase the oxygen supply. The power density of the fuel cell was examined in terms of the electrode area exposed to air. The output increased almost in proportion to the area of the electrode exposed to air. Optimization of the concentration of fuel, gel, and the amount of enzyme at the cathode were also examined. The maximum power density in the proposed system was approximately 121μW/cm2, an enhancement of approximately 2.5 times that in the case of using liquid fuel. For the power density after 24h, the fuel gel was superior to the fuel liquid.

Technological developments in direction control of axonal outgrowth are a must for advances in regenerative medicine of the nervous system. In order to solve the problem, we fabricate a new neural cell culture sheet by applying the soft lithography technique to micro-patterning of the extracellular matrix and using thin-film biodegradable polymer for the scaffold. Micro-trenches were coated with Dulbecco's phosphate-buffered saline (-) containing laminin, using micro-molding in capillaries (MIMIC), a soft lithography technique. Biodegradable thin films with micro-trenches were fabricated by UV-curing a polyanhydride solution covering the negative SU-8 mold through thiol-ene polymerization. Both approaches were performed conveniently, rapidly, and accurately. It is thought that these techniques are excellent in terms of convenience and high speed, and can contribute greatly to regenerative medicine.

Radar-absorbent materials (RAM) with various characteristics, such as broadband, oblique-incidence, and polarization characteristics, have been developed according to applications in recent years. This paper presents the optimized design method of two flat layers RAM with both broadband and oblique-incidence characteristics for the required RAM performance. The oblique-incidence characteristics mean that the RAM is possible to absorb radio waves continuously up to the maximum incidence angle. The index of the wave-absorption amount is 20dB, corresponding to an absorption rate of 99%. Because determination of the electrical material constant of each layer is the most important task with respect to the received frequency and the incidence angle, we optimized the values by using Non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II). Two types of flat-layer RAM composed of dielectric and magnetic materials were designed and their characteristics were evaluated. Consequently, it was confirmed that oblique-incidence characteristics were better for the RAM composed of dielectric materials. The dielectric RAM achieved an incidence angle of up to 60° with broadband characteristics and a relative bandwidth of 77.01% at the transverse-magnetic (TM) wave incidence. In addition, the magnetic RAM could lower the minimum frequency of the system more than the dielectric RAM. The minimum frequency of the magnetic RAM was 1.38GHz with a relative bandwidth of 174.18% at TM-wave incidence and an incidence angle of 45°. We confirmed that it is possible to design RAM with broadband characteristics and continuous oblique-incidence characteristics by using the proposed method.

We present an automated lemma generation method for equational, inductive theorem proving based on the term rewriting induction of Reddy and Aoto as well as the divergence critic framework of Walsh. The method effectively works by using the divergence-detection technique to locate differences in diverging sequences, and generates potential lemmas automatically by analyzing these differences. We have incorporated this method in the multi-context inductive theorem prover of Sato and Kurihara to overcome the strategic problems resulting from the unsoundness of the method. The experimental results show that our method is effective especially for some problems diverging with complex differences (i.e., parallel and nested differences).

It is known that correlation-immune (CI) Boolean functions used in the framework of side channel attacks need to have low Hamming weights. In this letter, we determine all unknown values of the minimum Hamming weights of d-CI Boolean functions in n variables, for d ≤ 5 and n ≤ 13.

We describe the preparation of an α-phenyl-4'-(diphenylamino)stilbene (TPA) single crystal and the evaluation of its hole transport property. Based on the characterization using optical microscopy, polarizing microscopy, and X-ray diffraction, a large-scale TPA single crystal of dimensions 7.0×0.9×0.8mm is successfully synthesized using a solution method based on the solubility and supersolubility curves of the TPA. Notably, the current in the long-axis direction is larger than those in the short-axis and thickness directions (i(long) > i(short) > i(thickness)), which reveals the anisotropic charge transfer of the TPA single crystal. The observed anisotropic conductivity is well explained by the orientation of the triphenylamine unit in the TPA single crystal. Furthermore, the activation energy of the long-axis direction in the TPA single crystal is lower than that of the short-axis in TPA and all the axes in the α-phenyl-4'-[bis(4-methylphenyl)amino]stilbene single crystal reported in our previous study.

This paper proposes a Petri net based mathematical programming approach to combinatorial optimization, in which we generate integer linear programming problems from Petri net models instead of the direct mathematical formulation. We treat two types of combinatorial optimization problems, ordinary problems and time-dependent problems. Firstly, we present autonomous Petri net modeling for ordinary optimization problems, where we obtain fundamental constraints derived from Petri net properties and additional problem-specific ones. Secondly, we propose a colored timed Petri net modeling approach to time-dependent problems, where we generate variables and constraints for time management and for resolving conflicts. Our Petri net approach can drastically reduce the difficulty of the mathematical formulation in a sense that (1) the Petri net modeling does not require deep knowledge of mathematical programming and technique of integer linear model formulations, (2) our automatic formulation allows us to generate large size of integer linear programming problems, and (3) the Petri net modeling approach is flexible for input parameter changes of the original problem.

Large-scale distributed antenna systems (LS-DASs) are gaining increasing interest and emerging as highly promising candidates for future wireless communications. To improve the user's quality of service (QoS) in these systems, this study proposes a user cooperation aided clustering approach based on device-centric architectures; it enables multi-user multiple-input multiple-output transmissions with non-reciprocal setups. We actively use device-to-device communication techniques to achieve the sharing of user information and try to form clusters on user side instead of the traditional way that performs clustering on base station (BS) side in data offloading. We further adopt a device-centric architecture to break the limits of the classical BS-centric cellular structure. Moreover, we derive an approximate expression to calculate the user rate for LS-DASs with employment of zero-forcing precoding and consideration of inter-cluster interference. Numerical results indicate that the approximate expression predicts the user rate with a lower computational cost than is indicated by computer simulation, and the proposed approach provides better user experience for, in particular, the users who have unacceptable QoS.

Spectral graph theory gives an algebraic approach to the analysis of the dynamics of a network by using the matrix that represents the network structure. However, it is not easy for social networks to apply the spectral graph theory because the matrix elements cannot be given exactly to represent the structure of a social network. The matrix element should be set on the basis of the relationship between persons, but the relationship cannot be quantified accurately from obtainable data (e.g., call history and chat history). To get around this problem, we utilize the universality of random matrices with the feature of social networks. As such a random matrix, we use the normalized Laplacian matrix for a network where link weights are randomly given. In this paper, we first clarify that the universality (i.e., the Wigner semicircle law) of the normalized Laplacian matrix appears in the eigenvalue frequency distribution regardless of the link weight distribution. Then, we analyze the information propagation speed by using the spectral graph theory and the universality of the normalized Laplacian matrix. As a result, we show that the worst-case speed of the information propagation changes up to twice if the structure (i.e., relationship among people) of a social network changes.

In this letter, a physical-layer network coding (PNC) scheme based on continuous phase modulation (CPM) signal using the titled-phase model, i.e., TIP-CPM-PNC, is presented, and the combined titled-phase state trellis for the superimposed CPM signal in TIP-CPM-PNC is discussed. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme with low decoding complexity can achieve the same error performance as CPM-PNC using the traditional-phase model.

This paper investigates energy-efficient resource allocation problem for the wireless power transfer (WPT) enabled multi-user massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. In the considered systems, the sensor nodes (SNs) are firstly powered by WPT from the power beacon (PB) with a large scale of antennas. Then, the SNs use the harvested energy to transmit the data to the base station (BS) with multiple antennas. The problem of optimizing the energy efficiency objective is formulated with the consideration of maximum transmission power of the PB and the quality of service (QoS) of the SNs. By adopting fractional programming, the energy-efficient optimization problem is firstly converted into a subtractive form. Then, a joint power and time allocation algorithm based on the block coordinate descent and Dinkelbach method is proposed to maximize energy efficiency. Finally, simulation results show the proposed algorithm achieves a good compromise between the spectrum efficiency and total power consumption.

When time difference of arrival (TDOA)-based bearing measurements are used in passive triangulation, the accuracy of localization depends on the geometric relationship between the emitter and the sensors. In particular, the localization accuracy varies with the geometric conditions in TDOA-based direction finding (DF) for bearing measurement and lines of bearing (LOBs) crossing for triangulation. To obtain an accurate estimate in passive triangulation using TDOA-based bearing measurements, we shall use these bearings selectively by considering geometric dilution of precision (GDOP) between the emitter and the sensors. To achieve this goal, we first define two GDOPs related to TDOA-based DF and LOBs crossing geometries, and then propose a new hybrid GDOP by combining these GDOPs for a better selection of bearings. Subsequently, two bearings with the lowest hybrid GDOP condition are chosen as the inputs to a triangulation localization algorithm. In simulations, the proposed method shows its enhancement to the localization accuracy.

It is well known that the power transfer efficiency (PTE) of a wireless power transfer (WPT) system is maximized at a specific coupling coefficient under the fixed system parameters. For an adaptive WPT system, various attempts have been made to achieve the maximum PTE by changing the system parameters. Applying the input matching networks to the WPT system is one of the most popular implementation methods to change the source impedance and improve the PTE. In this paper, we derive the optimum source condition for the given load and the achievable maximum PTE under the optimum source condition in a closed-form. Furthermore, we propose a method to estimate the input impedance, without feedback information, and an input matching network structure that transforms the source impedance into the optimum source obtained from the estimated input impedance. The proposed technique is successfully implemented at a resonant frequency of 13.56MHz. The experimental results are in close agreement with the theoretical achievable maximum PTE and show that the use of only a single matching network can sufficiently achieve a PTE close to the ideal maximum PTE.

The Game of Life, a two-dimensional computationally universal cellular automaton, is known to exhibits 1/f noise in the evolutions starting from random configurations. In this paper we perform the spectral analysis on the computation process by a Turing machine constructed on the array of the Game of Life. As a result, the power spectrum averaged over the whole array has almost flat line at low frequencies and a lot of sharp peaks at high frequencies although some regions in which complicated behavior such as frequent memory rewriting occurs exhibit 1/f noise. This singular power spectrum is, however, easily turned into 1/f by slightly deforming the initial configuration of the Turing machine. These results emphasize the peculiarity of the computation process on the Game of Life that is never shared with the evolutions from random configurations. The Lyapunov exponents have positive values in three out of six trials and zero or negative values in other three trails. That means the computation process is essentially chaotic but it has capable of recovering a slight error in the configuration of the Turing machine.

Contemporary software projects often utilize a README.md to share crucial information such as installation and usage examples related to their software. Furthermore, these files serve as an important source of updated and useful documentation for developers and prospective users of the software. Nonetheless, both novice and seasoned developers are sometimes unsure of what is required for a good README file. To understand the contents of README, we investigate the contents of 43,900 JavaScript packages. Results show that these packages contain common content themes (i.e., ‘usage’, ‘install’ and ‘license’). Furthermore, we find that application-specific packages more frequently included content themes such as ‘options’, while library-based packages more frequently included other specific content themes (i.e., ‘install’ and ‘license’).

With the development of spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR), ultra-high spatial resolution has become a hot topic in recent years. The system with high spatial resolution requests large range bandwidths and long azimuth integration time. However, due to the long azimuth integration time, many problems arise, which cannot be ignored in the operational ultra-high resolution spotlight mode. This paper investigates two critical issues that need to be noticed for the full-aperture processing of ultra-high resolution spaceborne SAR spotlight data. The first one is the inaccuracy of the traditional hyperbolic range model (HRM) when the system approaches decimeter range resolution. The second one is the azimuth spectral folding phenomenon. The problems mentioned above result in significant degradation of the focusing effect. Thus, to solve these problems, a full-aperture processing scheme is proposed in this paper which combines the superiorities of two generally utilized processing algorithms: the precision of one-step motion compensation (MOCO) algorithm and the efficiency of modified two-step processing approach (TSA). Firstly, one-step MOCO algorithm, a state-of-the-art MOCO algorithm which has been applied in ultra-high resolution airborne SAR systems, can precisely correct for the error caused by spaceborne curved orbit. Secondly, the modified TSA can avoid the phenomenon of azimuth spectrum folding effectively. The key point of the modified TSA is the deramping approach which is carried out via the convolution operation. The reference function, varying with the instantaneous range frequency, is adopted by the convolution operation for obtaining the unfolding spectrum in azimuth direction. After these operations, the traditional wavenumber domain algorithm is available because the error caused by spaceborne curved orbit and the influence of the spectrum folding in azimuth direction have been totally resolved. Based on this processing scheme, the ultra-high resolution spaceborne SAR spotlight data can be well focused. The performance of the full-aperture processing scheme is demonstrated by point targets simulation.