Commentary—JES Focus Issue on Nucleation Growth: Measurements, Processes, and Materials

Focus issue: thin-film photovoltaic materials and devices.

The recent tragic event of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico reminds us of the challenges of developing sources of energy that are not only abundant and economical but, more importantly, are also as harmless as possible to the environment. Among renewable energy sources, solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies show great potential, as they convert directly sun light into electricity with...

Focus on nanospace materials

1 National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taiwan National Institute for Materials Science, Japan E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] Nanospace materials, including metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), zeolites, mesoporous materials, and layered compounds, are attrac...

Focus on Materials Nanoarchitectonics.

Focus Issue on Male Infertility

Male infertility problems can occur when sperms are limited in number or function. In this paper, we describe the clinical evaluation of male infertility. A detailed history, physical examination, and basic semen analysis are required. In addition, ultrasound, karyotyping, and hormonal studies are needed to determine specific causes of infertility. In addition, the World Health Organization (WH...

Parameter identification in non-isothermal nucleation and growth processes

We study non-isothermal nucleation and growth phase transformations, which are described by a generalized Avrami model for the phase transition coupled with an energy balance to account for recalescence effects. The main novelty of our work is the identification of temperature dependent nucleation rates. We prove that such rates can be uniquely identified from measurements in a subdomain and ap...