Collecting and analyzing data lies at the basis of the scientific method: findings about nature usher new ideas, and experimental results support or refute theories. All this is not very prevalent in computer science, possibly due to the fact that computer systems are man made, and not perceived as a natural phenomenon. But computer systems and their interactions with their users are actually c...

Coastal waters represent the commingling of offshore marine and terrestrial surface source waters and therefore are naturally complex and variable. Our long term goal is to establish observational and modeling approaches to predict sources and scales of variability in the source waters, particularly those related to land use activities in upstream watersheds, from observations and measurements ...

Techniques and calculations are presented that give explicit expressions for the over-all performance of a luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) in terms of the intrinsic spectral response and quantum efficiency of its constituents. We examine the single dye (or inorganic ion) LSC with emphasis on the planar geometry. Preliminary data on the degradation of candidate LSC dyes under severe weather...

Using optical tweezers combined with luminescence measurements we detected the optical field around two optically trapped silica microspheres partially covered by metal. By monitoring the luminescence of rhodamine 6G we were able to observe an increase of the local field intensity owing to the coupling of the local surface plasmons at the surfaces of two spheres.

In this paper, we describe an innovative project where Web technologies are exploited to foster science learning in an integrated but mobile smart learning environment. Contextawareness is considered a crucial skill in science learning, therefore we imagined a solution to train students for context awareness by illustrating context gaps based on on-site observations and measurements. A componen...

Bioluminescence is primarily a marine phenomenon with 80% of metazoan bioluminescent genera occurring in the world's oceans. Here we show that bioluminescence has evolved repeatedly and is phylogenetically widespread across ray-finned fishes. We recover 27 independent evolutionary events of bioluminescence, all among marine fish lineages. This finding indicates that bioluminescence has evolved ...

Photoplethysmography is used in various areas such as vital sign measurement, vascular characteristics analysis, and autonomic nervous system assessment. Photoplethysmographic signals are composed of ac and dc, but it is difficult to find research about the interaction of photoplethysmographic components. This study suggested a model equation combining two Lambert-Beer equations at the onset an...

This work presents a simple method to generate ordered chromophore/dispersant nanoarrays through a pore-filling process for a nanoporous polymer template to enhance chromophore luminescence. Fluorescence results combining with the morphological evolution examined by scanning probe microscopy reveal that the enhanced luminescence intensity reaches the maximum intensity as the nanopores of the te...

A new composite film based on calcined layered rare earth hydroxides and poly(vinyl alcohol) shows a visible light transmittance comparable to that of the pure matrix, highly reinforced mechanical strength as well as tunable photoluminescence in rolled and folded shapes.

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have been intensively studied as a key technology for next-generation displays and lighting. The efficiency of OLEDs has improved markedly in the last 15 years by employing phosphorescent emitters. However, there are two main issues in the practical application of phosphorescent OLEDs (PHOLEDs): the relatively short operational lifetime and the relatively h...