Intratumoral Thermal Reading During Photo‐Thermal Therapy by Multifunctional Fluorescent Nanoparticles

The tremendous development of nanotechnology is bringing us closer to the dream of clinical application of nanoparticles in photothermal therapies of tumors. This requires the use of specific nanoparticles that must be highly biocompatible, efficient light‐to‐heat converters and fluorescent markers. Temperature reading by the heating nanoparticles during therapy appears of paramount importance to keep at a minimum the collateral damage that could arise from undesirable excessive heating. In this work, this thermally controlled therapy is possible by using Nd³⁺ ion‐doped LaF₃ nanocrystals. Because of the particular optical features of Nd³⁺ ions at high doping concentrations, these nanoparticles are capable of in vivo photothermal heating, fluorescent tumor localization and intratumoral thermal sensing. The successful photothermal therapy experiments here presented highlight the importance of controlling therapy parameters based on intratumoral temperature measurements instead of on the traditionally used skin temperature measurements. In fact, significant differences between intratumoral and skin temperatures do exist and could lead to the appearance of excessive collateral damage. These results open a new avenue for the real application of nano­particle‐based photothermal therapy at clinical level.     

Improving mobile ad hoc network routing with satellite out‐of‐band signaling

Routing in mobile ad hoc networks is a complex task due to the mobility of the nodes and the constraints linked to a wireless multihop network (e.g., limited bandwidth, collisions, and bit errors). These adverse conditions impair not only data traffic but also routing signaling traffic, which feeds route computation. In this contribution, we propose to use satellite communications to help in the distribution of mobile ad hoc network routing signaling. The optimized link‐state routing (OLSR) is chosen among several routing protocols to be extended with satellite‐based signaling, yielding a version we call OLSR hybrid signaling (OLSR‐H). This new scheme is evaluated through simulations and yields improvements of approximately 10% in the data delivery ratio compared with a regular OLSR. This evaluation is conducted using two different network topology models, one being fit for representing forest firefighting operations. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improved frequency characteristics of the randomized PWM boost rectifier

A randomized pulse width modulation (RPWM) algorithm is applied in the control unit of the boost rectifier to achieve improved frequency characteristics in the wide band. First, the introduction of the RPWM switching is reflected in a smaller increase of the total harmonic distortion (THD) factor in the input current. Nevertheless, decrease of the power factor is negligibly small. Second, the power spectrum density (PSD) of the input current is estimated and measured to evaluate the influence of randomization in the high-frequency range. This approach offers an effective and credible prediction method for reduction of conductive electromagnetic interference (EMI) by using the RPWM switching.     

Improving user content privacy on social networks using rights management systems

Currently, millions and millions of users are using online social networks to share their thoughts, experiences and content with online friends. Documents, videos, music and pictures are shared online, relying on the privacy and security controls offered by the social network platforms, with little control from the end user. This creates serious privacy concerns, since the control over the content shared online on the social network is out of the hands of the user. In this paper, the authors propose an approach for content privacy shared on social networks that is user-centric and not based on the social network platform. In order to achieve that, an architecture based on a rights management platform capable of enforcing the necessary security and privacy mechanisms that extend the original controls provided by the social network platform will be presented. That way, users will be able to control their privacy settings and protect their own content, even when they are no longer part of the social network (suspending or deleting its account).     

如何实现真实世界下的PC“绿色”能效

计算机原设备制造商（OEM）正面对商业、环保和法规等多方面的压力,需要体现他们产品的能效,提供更“绿色”的台式个人电脑（PC）和服务器。这使设计这些产品的工程师需要设计出符合诸如美国80 PLUS、“能源之星”（ENERGYSTAR）和计算产业拯救气候行动计划（CSCI）等能效标准的PC电源。     

Optical Properties of Hybrid Organic‐Inorganic Materials and their Applications

Research on hybrid inorganic‐organic materials has experienced an explosive growth since the 1980s, with the expansion of soft inorganic chemistry based processes. Indeed, mild synthetic conditions, low processing temperatures provided by “chimie douce” and the versatility of the colloidal state allow for the mixing of the organic and inorganic components at the nanometer scale in virtually any ratio to produce the so called hybrid materials. Today a high degree of control over both composition and nanostructure of these hybrids can be achieved allowing tunable structure‐property relationships. This, in turn, makes it possible to tailor and fine‐tune many properties (mechanical, optical, electronic, thermal, chemical…) in very broad ranges, and to design specific multifunctional systems for applications. In particular, the field of “Hybrid‐Optics” has been very productive not only scientifically but also in terms of applications. Indeed, numerous optical devices based on hybrids are already in, or very close, to the market. This review describes most of the recent advances performed in this field. Emphasis will be given to luminescent, photochromic, NLO and plasmonic properties. As an outlook we show that the controlled coupling between plasmonics and luminescence is opening a land of opportunities in the field of “Hybrid‐Optics”.     

Material requirements for the adoption of unconventional silicon crystal and wafer growth techniques for high‐efficiency solar cells

Silicon wafers comprise approximately 40% of crystalline silicon module cost and represent an area of great technological innovation potential. Paradoxically, unconventional wafer‐growth techniques have thus far failed to displace multicrystalline and Czochralski silicon, despite four decades of innovation. One of the shortcomings of most unconventional materials has been a persistent carrier lifetime deficit in comparison to established wafer technologies, which limits the device efficiency potential. In this perspective article, we review a defect‐management framework that has proven successful in enabling millisecond lifetimes in kerfless and cast materials. Control of dislocations and slowly diffusing metal point defects during growth, coupled to effective control of fast‐diffusing species during cell processing, is critical to enable high cell efficiencies. To accelerate the pace of novel wafer development, we discuss approaches to rapidly evaluate the device efficiency potential of unconventional wafers from injection‐dependent lifetime measurements. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.