First hand accounts of events in the laboratory of Prof. Eduard Pernkopf. Interviews by Seyed Hossein Aharinejad and Stephen W Carmichael.

Eduard Pernkopf was responsible for one of the best anatomy atlases of all time. He was also an active National Socialist during the Third Reich. Some have questioned whether his political affiliation influenced the procurement of anatomic specimens for his Atlas. Profs. Walter Kraus, Alfred Gisel, and Werner Platzer, who worked directly or indirectly with Pernkopf, were interviewed in 2006. We present transcripts of those interviews. The reader may evaluate their recollections in light of the political and social forces active in that period of history.

Electro--optical simulation of diffraction in solar cells.

A simulation method is presented and evaluated for simulating two- and three dimensional wave optical effects in crystalline silicon solar cells. Due to a thickness in the 100 µm range, optical properties of these solar cells typically are simulated, primarily through the use of ray-tracing. Recently, diffractive elements such as gratings or photonic crystals have been investigated for their application in crystalline silicon solar cells, making it necessary to consider two- and three dimensional wave optical effects. The presented approach couples a rigorous wave optical simulation to a semiconductor device simulation. In a first step, characteristic parameters, simulated for a reference setup using the electro-optical method and the standard procedure are compared. Occurring differences provide a measure to quantify the errors of the electro-optical method. These errors are below 0.4% relative. In a second step the electro-optical method is used to simulate a crystalline silicon solar cell with a back side diffractive grating. It is found that the grating enhances to short circuit current density jSC of the solar cell by more than 1 mA/cm².

Color rendering properties of interior lighting influenced by a switchable window.

Switchable windows are being installed into modern buildings. We report on how the variable transmittance of gasochromic and electrochromic switchable windows changes the color rendering properties of the daylight passing through these windows. We present a series of color rendering examples. Correlated color temperature and color rendering indices are insufficient to describe the color properties of this filtered light, as these indices are beyond the applicability limits. We obtain more reliable results using the color shifts (deltaE) of different objects. We find that as the transmittance of the window changes, each surface color moves along a path of the CIELAB space in the same direction for both switchable units. The direction and distance moved differs among test-color samples. The appearance of an array of colored objects is strongly distorted at higher coloration states of the windows.

Fatty acid composition and preservation of the Tyrolean Iceman and other mummies.

In anthropology, objective parameters to adequately describe storage conditions and the preservation of mummies have yet to be identified. Considering that fatty acids degrade to stable products, we analysed their profile in human mummies and in control samples by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Originating from different epochs and civilizations, samples of the Tyrolean Iceman, other glacier corpses, a freeze dried mummy, corpses from a permafrost region, a corpse mummified immersed in water, and a desert mummy were evaluated. Chemometric analysis based on the concentrations of 16 fatty acids revealed the degree of similarity between anthropologic and fresh corpse samples, which was mainly influenced by the content of palmitic acid, oleic acid, and 10-hydroxystearic acid. The presence of 10-hydroxystearic acid was associated with immersion in water, whereas dry mummification was accompanied by high contents of oleic acid. Samples of the Tyrolean Iceman clustered between fresh tissue and those of other glacier corpses indicating the good preservation of this mummy. Thus, environmental post-mortem conditions were associated with characteristic fatty acid patterns suggesting that chemometric analysis of fatty acid contents may add to our knowledge about post-mortem storage conditions and the preservation of human corpses.