The HeartPy Python toolkit for analysis of noisy signals from heart rate measurements is an excellent tool to use in conjunction with novel wearable sensors. Nevertheless, most of the work to date has focused on applying the toolkit to data measured with commercially available sensors. We demonstrate the application of the HeartPy functions to data obtained with a novel graphene-based heartbeat sensor. We produce the sensor by laser-inducing graphene on a flexible polyimide substrate. Both graphene on the polyimide substrate and graphene transferred onto a PDMS substrate show piezoresistive behavior that can be utilized to measure human heartbeat by registering median cubital vein motion during blood pumping. We process electrical resistance data from the graphene sensor using HeartPy and demonstrate extraction of several heartbeat parameters, in agreement with measurements taken with independent reference sensors. We compare the quality of the heartbeat signal from graphene on different substrates, demonstrating that in all cases the device yields results consistent with reference sensors. Our work is a first demonstration of successful application of HeartPy to analysis of data from a sensor in development.

This paper describes the possibility of using an Electrically Programmable Analog Device (EPAD) as a gamma radiation sensor. Zero-biased EPAD has the lowest fading and the highest sensitivity in the 300 Gy dose range. Dynamic bias of the control gate during irradiation was presented for the first time; this method achieved higher sensitivity compared to static-biased EPADs and better linear dependence. Due to the degradation of the transfer characteristics of EPAD during irradiation, a function of the safe operation area has been found that determines the maximum voltage at the control gate for the desired dose, which will not lead to degradation of the transistor. Using an energy band diagram, it was explained why the zero-biased EPAD has higher sensitivity than the static-biased EPAD.

Dye-sensitized solar cells are the closest mankind has come to replicating nature?s photosynthesis. The type of a dye influences the efficiency of these cells. In this paper we studied curcumin dye as a sensitizer in dye-sensitized solar cells and compared it with most often used cyanidin. The results have shown that curcumin has higher efficiency and higher absorption in the visible part of the spectrum compared to cyanidin. Simulation models of dye molecules, curcumin and cyanidin, are deprotonated upon adsorption on the titanium dioxide surface. The energy levels obtained from the calculation indicate a higher probability of electron transition from molecule to titanium dioxide surface in case of curcumin than in case of cyanidin. Based on these results, we concluded that curcumin dye has better properties as sensitizer in dye-sensitized solar cells.

Measurement of absorbed dose and dose rate is a common task in radiation environments such as space. This is accomplished with the specialized instruments known as radiation dosimeters. Among the most commonly used radiation dosimeters in space missions are those based on the Radiation Sensitive Field Effect Transistors (RADFETs). In this paper, we propose a design concept for a radiation hardened readout system for the real-time measurement of absorbed dose and dose rate with RADFET. The successive switching between the absorbed dose and dose rate readout modes, as well as the subsequent data processing, are performed by the self-adaptive fault-tolerant Multiprocessing System-on-Chip (MPSoC). The integrated framework controller and the real-time monitoring of particle flux with the embedded Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) enable the autonomous selection of operating and fault-tolerant modes, thus achieving the optimal performance under variable radiation conditions.