Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Transparent conductors

Many new solar cells use transparent thin films that are also conductors of electrical charge. The dominant conductive thin films used in research now are transparent conductive oxides (abbreviated "TCO"), and include fluorine-doped tin oxide (SnO2:F, or "FTO"), doped zinc oxide (e.g.: ZnO:Al), and indium tin oxide (abbreviated "ITO"). These conductive films are also used in the LCD industry for flat panel displays. The dual function of a TCO allows light to pass through a substrate window to the active light absorbing material beneath, and also serves as an ohmic contact to transport photogenerated charge carriers away from that light absorbing material.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

European Union Satellite Centre

The European Union Satellite Centre (EUSC) is an Agency of the Council of the European Union which gathers information through satellite images to help the EU prevent conflicts and provide humanitarian aid. EUSC was set up in 2002 to replace the Western Union Satellite Centre and thus represents a part of the transfer of functions from the Western European Union (WEU) to the European Union (EU), and more specifically to the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The centre is in Torrejón de Ardoz in Spain. Other countries who have an association agreement with the EUSC can also use its resources.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Control system

A control system is a device or set of devices to manage, command, direct or regulate the behavior of other devices or systems.

There are two common classes of control systems, with many variations and combinations: logic or sequential controls, and feedback or linear controls. There is also fuzzy logic, which attempts to combine some of the design simplicity of logic with the utility of linear control. Some devices or systems are inherently not controllable.
The term "control system" may be applied to the essentially manual controls that allow an operator to, for example, close and open a hydraulic press, where the logic requires that it cannot be moved unless safety guards are in place.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Cybernetics

Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of complex systems, especially communication processes, control mechanisms and feedback principles. Cybernetics is closely related to control theory and systems theory.
Contemporary cybernetics began as an interdisciplinary study connecting the fields of control systems, electrical network theory, mechanical engineering, logic modeling, evolutionary biology and neuroscience in the 1940s. Other fields of study which have influenced or been influenced by cybernetics include game theory, system theory (a mathematical counterpart to cybernetics), psychology (especially neuropsychology, behavioral psychology, and cognitive psychology), and also philosophy, and even architecture