Should the court direct that costs ordered to be recovered on the indemnity basis be assessed by reference to a costs agreement between the successful party and their solicitors?

The decision in Hook v Boreham & QBE Insurance (Australia) Limited [2006] QDC 304 considered whether the court should go further than order that costs be assessed on the indemnity basis, but should also specify the basis by which those indemnity costs should be determined. The decision makes it clear that under r704(3) of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules, questions of that nature are ordinarily preserved to the discretion of the Registrar.

Atmospheric microplasma-functionalized 3D microfluidic strips within dense carbon nanotube arrays confine Au nanodots for SERS sensing

An atmospheric microplasma jet produces three-dimensional (3D) microfluidic channels on dense arrays of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes, which confines Au nanodot aqueous solution. The resulting hybrid 3D nanostructure is exploited as an effective microscopic area-selective sensing platform based on surface-enhanced Raman scattering.

The effect of microscopic texture on the direct plasma surface passivation of Si solar cells

Textured silicon surfaces are widely used in manufacturing of solar cells due to increasing the light absorption probability and also the antireflection properties. However, these Si surfaces have a high density of surface defects that need to be passivated. In this study, the effect of the microscopic surface texture on the plasma surface passivation of solar cells is investigated. The movement of 105 H+ ions in the texture-modified plasma sheath is studied by Monte Carlo numerical simulation. The hydrogen ions are driven by the combined electric field of the plasma sheath and the textured surface. The ion dynamics is simulated, and the relative ion distribution over the textured substrate is presented. This distribution can be used to interpret the quality of the Si dangling bonds saturation and consequently, the direct plasma surface passivation.

Open-air direct current plasma jet : scaling up, uniformity, and cellular control

Atmospheric-pressure plasma jets are commonly used in many fields from medicine to nanotechnology, yet the issue of scaling the discharges up to larger areas without compromising the plasma uniformity remains a major challenge. In this paper, we demonstrate a homogenous cold air plasmaglow with a large cross-section generated by a direct current power supply. There is no risk of glow-to-arc transitions, and the plasmaglow appears uniform regardless of the gap between the nozzle and the surface being processed. Detailed studies show that both the position of the quartz tube and the gas flow rate can be used to control the plasma properties. Further investigation indicates that the residual charges trapped on the inner surface of the quartz tube may be responsible for the generation of the air plasma plume with a large cross-section. The spatially resolved optical emission spectroscopy reveals that the air plasma plume is uniform as it propagates out of the nozzle. The remarkable improvement of the plasma uniformity is used to improve the bio-compatibility of a glass coverslip over a reasonably large area. This improvement is demonstrated by a much more uniform and effective attachment and proliferation of human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK 293) cells on the plasma-treated surface.

3D CFD simulations of a candidate R143a radial-inflow turbine for geothermal power applications

Optimisation of Organic Rankine Cycles (ORCs) for binary cycle applications could play a major role in determining the competitiveness of low to moderate renewable sources. An important aspect of the optimisation is to maximise the turbine output power for a given resource. This requires careful attention to the turbine design notably through numerical simulations. Challenges in the numerical modelling of radial-inflow turbines using high-density working fluids still need to be addressed in order to improve the turbine design and better optimise ORCs. This paper presents preliminary 3D numerical simulations of a radial-inflow turbine working with high-density fluids in realistic geothermal ORCs. Following extensive investigation of the operating conditions and thermodynamic cycle analysis, the refrigerant R143a is chosen as the high-density working fluid. The 1D design of the candidate radial-inflow turbine is presented in details. Furthermore, commercially-available software Ansys-CFX is used to perform the 3D CFD simulations for a number of operating conditions including off-design conditions. The real-gas properties are obtained using the Peng-Robinson equations of state. The preliminary design created using dedicated radial-inflow turbine software Concepts-Rital is discussed and the 3D CFD results are presented and compared against the meanline analysis.

A three-level flying-capacitor rectifier based supercapacitor direct integration scheme for distributed generation systems

Supercapacitors are increasingly used as short term energy storage elements in distributed generation systems. The traditional approach in integrating them to the main system is the use of interfacing dc-dc converters which introduce additional costs and power losses. This paper therefore, presents a novel direct integration scheme for supercapacitors and thereby eliminates associated costs and power losses of interfacing converters. The idea is simply to replace ordinary capacitors of three-level flying-capacitor rectifiers with supercapacitors and operate them under variable voltage conditions. An analysis on the reduction of power losses by the proposed system is presented. Furthermore, supercapacitor sizing and implementation issues such as effects of the variable voltage operation and resistive behavior of supercapacitors at high frequencies are also discussed. Simulation results are presented to verify the efficacy of the proposed system in suppressing short term power fluctuations in wind generation system.

A unique battery/supercapacitor direct integration scheme for hybrid electric vehicles

Battery/supercapacitor hybrid energy storage systems have been gaining popularity in electric vehicles due to their excellent power and energy performances. Conventional designs of such systems require interfacing dc-dc converters. These additional dc-dc converters increase power loss, complexity, weight and cost. Therefore, this paper proposes a new direct integration scheme for battery/supercapacitor hybrid energy storage systems using a double ended inverter system. This unique approach eliminates the need for interfacing converters and thus it is free from aforementioned drawbacks. Furthermore, the proposed system offers seven operating modes to improve the effective use of available energy in a typical drive cycle of a hybrid electric vehicle. Simulation results are presented to verify the efficacy of the proposed system and control techniques.

A direct integration scheme for battery-supercapacitor hybrid energy storage systems with the use of grid side inverter

Battery-supercapacitor hybrid energy storage systems are becoming popular in the renewable energy sector due to their improved power and energy performances. These hybrid systems require separate dc-dc converters, or at least one dc-dc converter for the supercapacitor bank, to connect them to the dc-link of the grid interfacing inverter. These additional dc-dc converters increase power losses, complexity and cost. Therefore, possibility of their direct connection is investigated in this paper. The inverter system used in this study is formed by cascading two 3-level inverters, named as the “main inverter” and the “auxiliary inverter”, through a coupling transformer. In the test system the main inverter is connected with the rectified output of a wind generator while the auxiliary inverter is directly attached to a battery and a supercapacitor bank. The major issues with this approach are the dynamic changes in dc-link voltages and inevitable imbalances in the auxiliary inverter voltages, which results in unevenly distributed space vectors. A modified SVM technique is proposed to solve this issue. A PWM based time sharing method is proposed for power sharing between the battery and the supercapacitor. Simulation results are presented to verify the efficacy of the proposed modulation and control techniques.

A hybrid cascaded multilevel inverter with supercapacitor direct integration for wind power systems

This paper presents a grid-side inverter based supercapacitor direct integration scheme for wind power systems. The inverter used in this study consists of a conventional two-level inverter and three H-bridge modules. Three supercapacitor banks are directly connected to the dc-links of H-bridge modules. This approach eliminates the need for interfacing dc-dc converters and thus considerably improves the overall efficiency. However, for the maximum utilization of super capacitors their voltages should be allowed to vary. As a result of this variable voltage space vectors of the hybrid inverter get distributed unevenly. To handle this issue, a modified PWM method and a space vector modulation method are proposed and they can generate undistorted current even in the presence of unevenly distributed space vectors. A supercapacitor voltage balancing method is also presented in this paper. Simulation results are presented to validate the efficacy of the proposed scheme, modulation methods and control techniques.

3D-hybrid networks with controllable electrical conductivity from the electrochemical deposition of terthiophene-functionalized polyphenylene dendrimers

(Figure Presented) Unusual conductivity effects: Suitably functionalized dendrimers (see picture) are capable of forming truly covalent three-dimensional networks with remarkably high conductivity on electrochemical doping. Depending on the charging level of the electroactive components used as building blocks for the dendrimer core and the perimeter, two separated regimes of electrical conductivity can be observed.

Synthesis of diketopyrrolopyrrole based copolymers via the direct arylation method for p-channel and ambipolar OFETs

In this paper, we have synthesized two novel diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) based donor-acceptor (D-A) copolymers poly{3,6-dithiophene-2-yl-2,5-di(2-octyl)- pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4-dione-alt-1,5-bis(dodecyloxy)naphthalene} (PDPPT-NAP) and poly{3,6-dithiophene-2-yl-2,5-di(2-butyldecyl)-pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4- dione-alt-2-dodecyl-2H-benzo[d][1,2,3]triazole} (PDPPT-BTRZ) via direct arylation organometallic coupling. Both copolymers contain a common electron withdrawing DPP building block which is combined with electron donating alkoxy naphthalene and electron withdrawing alkyl-triazole comonomers. The number average molecular weight (Mn) determined by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) for polymer PDPPT-NAP is around 23 400 g mol-1 whereas for polymer PDPPT-BTRZ it is 18 600 g mol-1. The solid state absorption spectra of these copolymers show a wide range of absorption from 400 nm to 1000 nm with optical band gaps calculated from absorption cut off values in the range of 1.45-1.30 eV. The HOMO values determined for PDPPT-NAP and PDPPT-BTRZ copolymers from photoelectron spectroscopy in air (PESA) data are 5.15 eV and 5.25 eV respectively. These polymers exhibit promising p-channel and ambipolar behaviour when used as an active layer in organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) devices. The highest hole mobility measured for polymer PDPPT-NAP is around 0.0046 cm2 V-1 s-1 whereas the best ambipolar performance was calculated for PDPPT-BTRZ with a hole and electron mobility of 0.01 cm2 V-1 s-1 and 0.006 cm2 V-1 s-1.

Augmenting and assisting model elicitation tasks with 3D virtual world context metadata

Accurate process model elicitation continues to be a time consuming task, requiring skill on the part of the interviewer to extract explicit and tacit process information from the interviewee. Many errors occur in this elicitation stage that would be avoided by better activity recall, more consistent specification methods and greater engagement in the elicitation process by interviewees. Theories of situated cognition indicate that interactive 3D representations of real work environments engage and prime the cognitive state of the viewer. In this paper, our major contribution is to augment a previous process elicitation methodology with virtual world context metadata, drawn from a 3D simulation of the workplace. We present a conceptual and formal approach for representing this contextual metadata, integrated into a process similarity measure that provides hints for the business analyst to use in later modelling steps. Finally, we conclude with examples from two use cases to illustrate the potential abilities of this approach.

Foreign direct investment and technology spillovers in sub-Saharan Africa

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is an effective conduit for technology transfer through technology spillovers to domestically owned firms in the host country. This study analyses the significance of productivity externalities of FDI to local firms, in terms of both intra-industry and inter-industry spillovers, using firm-level data from Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The results show evidences in support of intra- and inter-industry productivity spillovers from FDI for Kenya and Zimbabwe. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.

A dual inverter based supercapacitor direct integration scheme for wind energy conversion systems

This paper presents a new direct integration scheme for supercapacitors that are used to mitigate short term power fluctuations in wind power systems. The proposed scheme uses the popular dual inverter topology for grid connection as well as interfacing a supercapacitor bank. The dual inverter system is formed by cascading two 2-level inverters named as the “main inverter” and the “auxiliary inverter”. The main inverter is powered by the rectified output of a wind turbine coupled permanent magnet synchronous generator. The auxiliary inverter is directly connected to a super capacitor bank. This approach eliminates the need for an interfacing dc-dc converter for the supercapacitor bank and thus improves the overall efficiency. A detailed analysis on the effects of non-integer dynamically changing voltage ratio is presented. The concept of integrated boost rectifier is used to carry out the Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) of the wind turbine generator. Another novel feature of this paper is the power reference adjuster which effectively manages capacitor charging and discharging at extreme conditions. Simulation results are presented to verify the efficacy of the proposed system in suppressing short term wind power fluctuations.

Comparison of ovine mesenchymal cell and osteoblast osteogeic capacity in 2D and 3D

This thesis explored the different bone-forming potential of specific bone cells with differing embryological origin, on conventional culture platforms compared to 3D biocompatible scaffolds in vitro. Bone mesenchymal stem cells, mandibular osteoblasts and long bone osteoblasts from adult and juvenile sheep were compared in the study, as the embryological origin of the osteoblasts from the craniofacial and appendicular skeleton differs. The study demonstrated differing characteristics of the various cell types when cultured on the two different platforms compared and this may have an impact on future research into cell seeded tissue scaffolds to aid in vivo tissue regeneration.