A furan-containing conjugated polymer for high mobility ambipolar organic thin film transistors

Furan substituted diketopyrrolopyrrole (DBF) combined with benzothiadiazole based polymer semiconductor PDPP-FBF has been synthesized and evaluated as an ambipolar semiconductor in organic thin-film transistors. Hole and electron mobilities as high as 0.20 cm 2 V -1 s -1 and 0.56 cm 2 V -1 s -1, respectively, are achieved for PDPP-FBF.

A fluorenone based low band gap solution processable copolymer for air stable and high mobility organic field effect transistors

A fluorenone based alternating copolymer (PFN-DPPF) with a furan based fused aromatic moiety has been designed and synthesized. PFN-DPPF exhibits a small band gap with a lower HOMO value. Testing this polymer semiconductor as the active layer in organic thin-film transistors results in hole mobilities as high as 0.15 cm2 V-1 s-1 in air.

High mobility organic thin film transistor and efficient photovoltaic devices using versatile donor-acceptor polymer semiconductor by molecular design

In this work, we report a novel donor-acceptor based solution processable low band gap polymer semiconductor, PDPP-TNT, synthesized via Suzuki coupling using condensed diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) as an acceptor moiety with a fused naphthalene donor building block in the polymer backbone. This polymer exhibits p-channel charge transport characteristics when used as the active semiconductor in organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) devices. The hole mobilities of 0.65 cm2 V-1 s-1 and 0.98 cm2 V -1 s-1 are achieved respectively in bottom gate and dual gate OTFT devices with on/off ratios in the range of 105 to 10 7. Additionally, due to its appropriate HOMO (5.29 eV) energy level and optimum optical band gap (1.50 eV), PDPP-TNT is a promising candidate for organic photovoltaic (OPV) applications. When this polymer semiconductor is used as a donor and PC71BM as an acceptor in OPV devices, high power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of 4.7% are obtained. Such high mobility values in OTFTs and high PCE in OPV make PDPP-TNT a very promising polymer semiconductor for a wide range of applications in organic electronics.

A low-bandgap diketopyrrolopyrrole-benzothiadiazole-based copolymer for high-mobility ambipolar organic thin-film transistors

A new, solution-processable, low-bandgap, diketopyrrolopyrrole- benzothiadiazole-based, donor-acceptor polymer semiconductor (PDPP-TBT) is reported. This polymer exhibits ambipolar charge transport when used as a single component active semiconductor in OTFTs with balanced hole and electron mobilities of 0.35 cm2 V-1s-1 and 0.40 cm 2 V-1s-1, respectively. This polymer has the potential for ambipolar transistor-based complementary circuits in printed electronics.

High-mobility organic thin film transistors based on benzothiadiazole- sandwiched dihexylquaterthiophenes

We report here the synthesis, characterization, and organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) mobilities of 4,7-bis(5-(5-hexylthiophen-2-yl)thiophen-2-yl) benzo[1,2,5]thiadiazole (DH-BTZ-4T). DH-BTZ-4T was prepared in one high-yield step from commercially available materials using Suzuki chemistry and purified by column chromatography. OTFTs with hole mobilities of 0.17 cm2/(Vs) and on/off current ratios of 1 × 105 were prepared from DH-BTZ-4T active layers deposited by vacuum deposition. As DH-BTZ-4T is soluble in common solvents, solution processed devices were also prepared by spin coating yielding preliminary mobilities of 6.0 × 10-3 cm 2/(Vs). The promising mobilities and low band gap (1.90 eV) coupled with solution processability and ambient stability makes this material an excellent candidate for application in organic electronics.

Furan substituted diketopyrrolopyrrole and thienylenevinylene based low band gap copolymer for high mobility organic thin film transistors

A novel solution processable donor-acceptor (D-A) based low band gap polymer semiconductor poly{3,6-difuran-2-yl-2,5-di(2-octyldodecyl)-pyrrolo[3,4- c]pyrrole-1,4-dione-alt-thienylenevinylene} (PDPPF-TVT), was designed and synthesized by a Pd-catalyzed Stille coupling route. An electron deficient furan based diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) block and electron rich thienylenevinylene (TVT) donor moiety were attached alternately in the polymer backbone. The polymer exhibited good solubility, film forming ability and thermal stability. The polymer exhibits wide absorption bands from 400 nm to 950 nm (UV-vis-NIR region) with absorption maximum centered at 782 nm in thin film. The optical band gap (Eoptg) calculated from the polymer film absorption onset is around 1.37 eV. The π-energy band level (ionization potential) calculated by photoelectron spectroscopy in air (PESA) for PDPPF-TVT is around 5.22 eV. AFM and TEM analyses of the polymer reveal nodular terrace morphology with optimized crystallinity after 200 °C thermal annealing. This polymer exhibits p-channel charge transport characteristics when used as the active semiconductor in organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) devices. The highest hole mobility of 0.13 cm 2 V -1 s -1 is achieved in bottom gate and top-contact OTFT devices with on/off ratios in the range of 10 6-10 7. This work reveals that the replacement of thiophene by furan in DPP copolymers exhibits such a high mobility, which makes DPP furan a promising block for making a wide range of promising polymer semiconductors for broad applications in organic electronics.

Achieving enterprise integration through software customization : part II-enacting the strategy

In part 1 of this update, we put forward the argument that integration in ERP based environments can be achieved in ways other than adopting a software configuration only approach. We drew on evidence from two large ERP implementations to show how, despite the cost implications, some customization, if carefully managed, could prove helpful. In this, the final part of the update, we discuss the benefits, and potential pitfalls, involved in enacting a non-standard based integration strategy. This requires attention to a) broadening the integration definition; b) bringing legacy practices forward and c) developing a customization based integration strategy.

The role of goal importance in predicting university students’ high academic performance

We examined goal importance, focusing on high, but not exclusive priority goals, in the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to predict students’ academic performance. At the beginning of semester, students in a psychology subject (N = 197) completed TPB and goal importance items for achieving a high grade. Regression analyses revealed partial support for the TPB. Perceived behavioural control, but not attitude or subjective norm, significantly predicted intention, with intention predicting final grade. Goal importance significantly predicted intention, but not final grade, indicating that perceiving a performance goal as highly, but not necessarily exclusively, important impacts on students’ achievement intentions.

Proposing and developing the definition and conceptual framework for healthcare resilience to cope with disasters

Building healthcare resilience is an important step towards creating more resilient communities to better cope with future disasters. To date, however, there appears to be little literature on how the concept of healthcare resilience should be defined and operationalized with a conceptual framework. This article aims to build a comprehensive healthcare disaster management approach guided by the concept of resilience. Methods: Google and major health electronic databases were searched to retrieve critical relevant publications. A total of 61 related publications were included, to provide a comprehensive overview of theories and definitions relevant to disaster resilience. Results and Discussions: Resilience is an inherent and adaptive capacity to cope with future uncertainty, through multiple strategies with all hazards approaches, in an attempt to achieve a positive outcome with linkage and cooperation. Healthcare resilience can be defined as the capability of healthcare organisations to resist, absorb, and respond to the shock of disasters while maintaining the most essential functions, then recover to their original state or adapt to a new state. It can be assessed by criteria, namely: robustness, redundancy, resourcefulness; and a complex of key dimensions, namely: vulnerability and safety, disaster resources and preparedness, continuity of essential health services, recovery and adaptation. Conclusions: This new concept places healthcare organisations’ disaster capabilities, management tasks, activities and disaster outcomes together into a comprehensive whole view, using an integrated approach and establishing achievable goals.

The game of clones and the Australia tax : divergent views about copyright business models and the willingness of Australian consumers to infringe

It is often said that Australia is a world leader in rates of copyright infringement for entertainment goods. In 2012, the hit television show, Game of Thrones, was the most downloaded television show over bitorrent, and estimates suggest that Australians accounted for a plurality of nearly 10% of the 3-4 million downloads each week. The season finale of 2013 was downloaded over a million times within 24 hours of its release, and again Australians were the largest block of illicit downloaders over BitTorrent, despite our relatively small population. This trend has led the former US Ambassador to Australia to implore Australians to stop 'stealing' digital content, and rightsholders to push for increasing sanctions on copyright infringers. The Australian Government is looking to respond by requiring Internet Service Providers to issue warnings and potentially punish consumers who are alleged by industry groups to have infringed copyright. This is the logical next step in deterring infringement, given that the operators of infringing networks (like The Pirate Bay, for example) are out of regulatory reach. This steady ratcheting up of the strength of copyright, however, comes at a significant cost to user privacy and autonomy, and while the decentralisation of enforcement reduces costs, it also reduces the due process safeguards provided by the judicial process. This article presents qualitative evidence that substantiates a common intuition: one of the major reasons that Australians seek out illicit downloads of content like Game of Thrones in such numbers is that it is more difficult to access legitimately in Australia. The geographically segmented way in which copyright is exploited at an international level has given rise to a ‘tyranny of digital distance’, where Australians have less access to copyright goods than consumers in other countries. Compared to consumers in the US and the EU, Australians pay more for digital goods, have less choice in distribution channels, are exposed to substantial delays in access, and are sometimes denied access completely. In this article we focus our analysis on premium film and television offerings, like Game of Thrones, and through semi-structured interviews, explore how choices in distribution impact on the willingness of Australian consumers to seek out infringing copies of copyright material. Game of Thrones provides an excellent case study through which to frame this analysis: it is both one of the least legally accessible television offerings and one of the most downloaded through filesharing networks of recent times. Our analysis shows that at the same time as rightsholder groups, particularly in the film and television industries, are lobbying for stronger laws to counter illicit distribution, the business practices of their member organisations are counter-productively increasing incentives for consumers to infringe. The lack of accessibility and high prices of copyright goods in Australia leads to substantial economic waste. The unmet consumer demand means that Australian consumers are harmed by lower access to information and entertainment goods than consumers in other jurisdictions. The higher rates of infringement that fulfils some of this unmet demand increases enforcement costs for copyright owners and imposes burdens either on our judicial system or on private entities – like ISPs – who may be tasked with enforcing the rights of third parties. Most worryingly, the lack of convenient and cheap legitimate digital distribution channels risks undermining public support for copyright law. Our research shows that consumers blame rightsholders for failing to meet market demand, and this encourages a social norm that infringing copyright, while illegal, is not morally wrongful. The implications are as simple as they are profound: Australia should not take steps to increase the strength of copyright law at this time. The interests of the public and those of rightsholders align better when there is effective competition in distribution channels and consumers can legitimately get access to content. While foreign rightsholders are seeking enhanced protection for their interests, increasing enforcement is likely to increase their ability to engage in lucrative geographical price-discrimination, particularly for premium content. This is only likely to increase the degree to which Australian consumers feel that their interests are not being met and, consequently, to further undermine the legitimacy of copyright law. If consumers are to respect copyright law, increasing sanctions for infringement without enhancing access and competition in legitimate distribution channels could be dangerously counter-productive. We suggest that rightsholders’ best strategy for addressing infringement in Australia at this time is to ensure that Australians can access copyright goods in a timely, affordable, convenient, and fair lawful manner.

Effect of temperature and moisture on high pressure lipid/oil extraction from microalgae

Commercially viable carbon–neutral biodiesel production from microalgae has potential for replacing depleting petroleum diesel. The process of biodiesel production from microalgae involves harvesting, drying and extraction of lipids which are energy- and cost-intensive processes. The development of effective large-scale lipid extraction processes which overcome the complexity of microalgae cell structure is considered one of the most vital requirements for commercial production. Thus the aim of this work was to investigate suitable extraction methods with optimised conditions to progress opportunities for sustainable microalgal biodiesel production. In this study, the green microalgal species consortium, Tarong polyculture was used to investigate lipid extraction with hexane (solvent) under high pressure and variable temperature and biomass moisture conditions using an Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE) method. The performance of high pressure solvent extraction was examined over a range of different process and sample conditions (dry biomass to water ratios (DBWRs): 100%, 75%, 50% and 25% and temperatures from 70 to 120 ºC, process time 5–15 min). Maximum total lipid yields were achieved at 50% and 75% sample dryness at temperatures of 90–120 ºC. We show that individual fatty acids (Palmitic acid C16:0; Stearic acid C18:0; Oleic acid C18:1; Linolenic acid C18:3) extraction optima are influenced by temperature and sample dryness, consequently affecting microalgal biodiesel quality parameters. Higher heating values and kinematic viscosity were compliant with biodiesel quality standards under all extraction conditions used. Our results indicate that biodiesel quality can be positively manipulated by selecting process extraction conditions that favour extraction of saturated and mono-unsaturated fatty acids over optimal extraction conditions for polyunsaturated fatty acids, yielding positive effects on cetane number and iodine values. Exceeding biodiesel standards for these two parameters opens blending opportunities with biodiesels that fall outside the minimal cetane and maximal iodine values.

Glucocorticoid receptor haploinsufficiency causes hypertension and attenuates hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and blood pressure adaptions to high-fat diet

Glucocorticoid hormones are critical to respond and adapt to stress. Genetic variations in the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) gene alter hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity and associate with hypertension and susceptibility to metabolic disease. Here we test the hypothesis that reduced GR density alters blood pressure and glucose and lipid homeostasis and limits adaption to obesogenic diet. Heterozygous GR βgeo/+ mice were generated from embryonic stem (ES) cells with a gene trap integration of a β-galactosidase-neomycin phosphotransferase (βgeo) cassette into the GR gene creating a transcriptionally inactive GR fusion protein. Although GRβgeo/+ mice have 50% less functional GR, they have normal lipid and glucose homeostasis due to compensatory HPA axis activation but are hypertensive due to activation of the renin-angiotensin- aldosterone system (RAAS). When challenged with a high-fat diet, weight gain, adiposity, and glucose intolerance were similarly increased in control and GRβgeo/+ mice, suggesting preserved control of intermediary metabolism and energy balance. However, whereas a high-fat diet caused HPA activation and increased blood pressure in control mice, these adaptions were attenuated or abolished in GRβgeo/+ mice. Thus, reduced GR density balanced by HPA activation leaves glucocorticoid functions unaffected but mineralocorticoid functions increased, causing hypertension. Importantly, reduced GR limits HPA and blood pressure adaptions to obesogenic diet.

On the effect of topology on cellular automata rule spaces

This thesis presents an empirical study of the effects of topology on cellular automata rule spaces. The classical definition of a cellular automaton is restricted to that of a regular lattice, often with periodic boundary conditions. This definition is extended to allow for arbitrary topologies. The dynamics of cellular automata within the triangular tessellation were analysed when transformed to 2-manifolds of topological genus 0, genus 1 and genus 2. Cellular automata dynamics were analysed from a statistical mechanics perspective. The sample sizes required to obtain accurate entropy calculations were determined by an entropy error analysis which observed the error in the computed entropy against increasing sample sizes. Each cellular automata rule space was sampled repeatedly and the selected cellular automata were simulated over many thousands of trials for each topology. This resulted in an entropy distribution for each rule space. The computed entropy distributions are indicative of the cellular automata dynamical class distribution. Through the comparison of these dynamical class distributions using the E-statistic, it was identified that such topological changes cause these distributions to alter. This is a significant result which implies that both global structure and local dynamics play a important role in defining long term behaviour of cellular automata.

A non-linear interface element model for thin layer high adhesive mortared masonry

A nonlinear interface element modelling method is formulated for the prediction of deformation and failure of high adhesive thin layer polymer mortared masonry exhibiting failure of units and mortar. Plastic flow vectors are explicitly integrated within the implicit finite element framework instead of relying on predictor–corrector like approaches. The method is calibrated using experimental data from uniaxial compression, shear triplet and flexural beam tests. The model is validated using a thin layer mortared masonry shear wall, whose experimental datasets are reported in the literature and is used to examine the behaviour of thin layer mortared masonry under biaxial loading.