Abstract: Systems and methods of synthesizing nanoparticles on substrates using rapid, high temperature thermal shock. A method involves depositing micro-sized particles or salt precursors on a substrate, and applying a rapid, high temperature thermal pulse or shock to the micro-sized particles or the salt precursors and the substrate to cause the micro-sized particles or the salt precursors to become nanoparticles on the substrate. A system may include a rotatable member that receives a roll of a substrate sheet having micro-sized particles or salt precursors; a motor that rotates the rotatable member so as to unroll consecutive portions of the substrate sheet from the roll; and a thermal energy source that applies a short, high temperature thermal shock to consecutive portions of the substrate sheet that are unrolled from the roll by rotating the first rotatable member. Some systems and methods produce nanoparticles on existing substrate.

Abstract: A porous base substrate is infiltrated with a polymer material to form a hybrid substrate that combines the optical advantages of both. Prior to infiltration, the base substrate may exhibit relatively low optical transmittance. For example, the base substrate may be paper, textiles, aerogels, natural wood, or any other porous material. By infiltrating the base substrate with a polymer having a similar refractive index to that of the material of the base substrate, the transmittance can thus be improved, resulting in, for example, a transparent hybrid substrate that exhibits both relatively high optical haze and relatively high optical transmittance within the visible light spectrum. The hybrid substrate can thus serve as a base for fabricating electronic devices or can be coupled to electronic devices, especially optical devices that can take utilize the unique optical properties of the hybrid substrate.

Abstract: A computing device computes a plurality of quantile regression solvers for a dataset at a plurality of quantile levels. Each observation vector includes an explanatory vector of a plurality of explanatory variable values and a response variable value. The read dataset is recursively divided into subsets of the plurality of observation vectors, a lower counterweight vector and an upper counterweight vector are computed for each of the subsets, and a quantile regression solver is fit to each of the subsets using the associated, computed lower counterweight vector and the associated, computed upper counterweight vector to describe a quantile function of the response variable values for a selected quantile level of the identified plurality of quantile level values. For each selected quantile level, a parameter estimate vector and a dual solution vector that describe the quantile function are output in association with the selected quantile level.