The impact of alkali elements on the degradation of CIGS solar cells

Unencapsulated CIGS solar cells with high and low contents of sodium (Na) and potassium (K) were simultaneously exposed to damp heat and illumination. The solar cells with a high alkali (Na, K) content exhibited higher initial conversion efficiencies, but degraded severely within 100 h, while the alkali poor samples kept relatively stable performance under damp heat and illumination. The degradation of the samples with a high alkali content resulted in the formation of sodium rich spots on the top ZnO:Al surface of the samples. This is likely caused by light‐induced Na⁺ migration via the grain boundaries in the absorber to the depletion region, where the Na⁺ accumulated. This allowed subsequent Na⁺ transport through the depletion region due to the lowering of the internal electric field caused both by the Na⁺ accumulation and illumination. The migration resulted in the formation of shunt paths, which reduced the shunt resistance and open circuit voltage. Furthermore, ingression of water into the ZnO:Al is expected to be responsible for a slow but steady increase in series resistance for both high and low alkali solar cells. Additionally, sodium migration led to a severe increase of the series resistance in case of alkali rich samples. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On optimal filters with maximum number of constraints on amplitude and phase characteristics

For optimal filters specified amplitude and phase (or group delay) characteristics, it is required that all the free parameters of the transfer function be used for the approximation. To achieve this requirement, the number of constraints on the amlitude and phase characteristics is defined first on general interpolation bases. Constant or arbitrarily prescribed lowpass or bandpass group delay and amplitude characteristics are approximated in the maximally flat, ripple or mixed sense for lumped filters, whereas highpass and band rejection characteristics are also considered for distributed or sampled data filters. The relationship between the number of free parameters and the number of amplitude and phase constraints for a given degree is derived for non-reciprocal as well as for reciprocal lossy and reciprocal reactant cases. Conditions are derived for the distribution of free parameters between the passband and stopband amplitude and phase characteristics for transfer functions with Hurwitzian denominator and also for monotonic amplitude characteristics in the transition band. Some published separate and simultaneous approximation methods are evaluated and compared on the above bases. It is pointed out that some of these methods do not satisfy the above requirements, although the optimal solution would exhibit higher performances.     

Facilitating GL13K Peptide Grafting on Polyetheretherketone via 1-Ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide: Surface Properties and Antibacterial Activity

In the present work, the antimicrobial peptide (AMP) of GL13K was successfully coated onto a polyetheretherketone (PEEK) substrate to investigate its antibacterial activities against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) bacteria. To improve the coating efficiency, 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide (EDC) was mixed with a GL13K solution and coated on the PEEK surface for comparison. Both energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) data confirmed 30% greater peptide coating on PEEK/GL13K-EDC than PEEK without EDC treatment. The GL13K graft levels are depicted in the micrograms per square centimeter range. The PEEK/GL13K-EDC sample showed a smoother and lower roughness (Rq of 0.530 µm) than the PEEK/GL13K (0.634 µm) and PEEK (0.697 µm) samples. The surface of the PEEK/GL13K-EDC was more hydrophilic (with a water contact angle of 24°) than the PEEK/GL13K (40°) and pure PEEK (89°) samples. The pure PEEK disc did not exhibit any inhibition zone against S. aureus. After peptide coating, the samples demonstrated significant zones of inhibition: 28 mm and 25 mm for the PEEK/GL13K-EDC and PEEK/GL13K samples, respectively. The bacteria-challenged PEEK sample showed numerous bacteria clusters, whereas PEEK/GL13K contained a little bacteria and PEEK/GL13K-EDC had no bacterial attachment. The results confirm that the GL13K peptide coating was able to induce antibacterial and biofilm-inhibitory effects. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of successful GL13K peptide grafting on a PEEK substrate via EDC coupling. The present work illustrates a facile and promising coating technique for a polymeric surface to provide bactericidal activity and biofilm resistance to medical implantable devices.     

Screening and enumeration of lactic acid bacteria in milk using three different culture media in Petrifilm Aerobic Count plates and conventional pour plate methodology

This study aimed to compare Petrifilm Aerobic Count (AC) plates and the conventional pour plate methodology using de Mann-Rogosa-Sharpe (MRS), Kang-Fung (KF) and Kang-Fung-Sol (KFS) culture media for screening and enumeration of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in milk. Suspensions of 10 LAB species in reconstituted powder skim milk and 30 raw milk samples, without experimental inoculation, were tested. For selective enumeration, all samples were previously diluted in MRS, KF and KFS broths and then plated in Petrifilm AC and conventional pour plate methodology, using the same culture media with added agar. All plates were incubated at 37 degrees C for 48 h in anaerobic conditions. Differences in the counts were observed only for raw milk samples using KFS in conventional methodology, when compared with the counts obtained from MRS and KF (P0.05). The results showed excellent correlation indexes between both methodologies using the three culture media for LAB suspensions (r=0.97 for MRS, KF and KFS). For raw milk samples, the correlation indexes were excellent (r=0.97, for MRS) and good (r=0.84 for KF, and r=0.82 for KFS), showing some interference in Petrifilm AC when supplements were added, especially lactic acid. These results indicate the possibility of using Petrifilm AC plates for enumeration of LAB in milk, even with the use of selective supplements.     

Substituent distribution within cross-linked and hydroxypropylated sweet potato starch and potato starch

Revealing the substituents distribution within starch can help to understand the changes of starch properties after modification. The distribution of substituents over cross-linked and hydroxypropylated sweet potato starch was investigated and compared with modified potato starch. The starches were cross-linked with sodium trimetaphosphate and/or hydroxypropylated with propylene oxide. The native and modified starches were gelatinized and hydrolysed by pullulanase, β-amylase, α-amylase and a combination of pullulanase, α-amylase and amyloglucosidase. The hydrolysates were analysed by HPSEC, HPAEC and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Cross-linking had only a slight effect on the enzymatic hydrolysis, where hydroxypropylation evidently limited the enzymatic hydrolysis. The results obtained suggest that the hydroxypropyl substituents are not distributed regularly over the starch chains. Although the average substitution was around 2 hydroxypropyl groups per 10 glucose units, in the enzyme digests of hydroxypropylated starches, oligomer fragments of 10–15 glucose units, carrying 5–8 hydroxypropyl groups, were identified. It is hypothesised that higher levels of substituents are present in the amorphous regions and periphery of clusters of starch granules. This is the first time that the location of hydroxypropyl groups within sweet potato starch has been examined in this detail. Despite significant differences in granule architecture between starches from potato and sweet potato, similar patterns of hydroxypropylation have been found.     

Positron annihilation and nano-indentation analysis of irradiation effects on the microstructure and hardening of A508-3 steels used in Chinese HTGR

The irradiation and annealing behavior of Chinese A508-3 reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steel (0.04 wt% Cu) after 3 MeV Fe-ion irradiation ranging from 0.1 to 20 dpa at room temperature (called RTRPV) and high temperature (250?°C, called HTRPV) was studied by positron annihilation Doppler broadening (PADB) spectroscopy and nano-indentation hardness. PADB showed that the density of vacancy-type defects was higher for low-temperature irradiations. The higher hardness was found after high-temperature irradiation because of the formation of solute clusters during irradiation. Positron annihilation measurements revealed the interaction and clustering of vacancies with solute clusters which were introduced by Fe-ion irradiation. For both RTRPVs and HTRPVs, the positron defect parameter and positron diffusion length showed the recovery of the irradiation-induced defects. Total recovery was observed after annealing at 450 °C.     

Dynamic forecasting of individual cow milk yield in automatic milking systems

Accurate forecasting of dairy cow milk yield is useful to dairy farmers, both in relation to financial planning and for detection of deviating yield patterns, which can be an indicator of mastitis and other diseases. In this study we developed a dynamic linear model (DLM) designed to forecast milk yields of individual cows per milking, as they are milked in milking robots. The DLM implements a Wood's function to account for the expected total daily milk yield. It further implements a second-degree polynomial function to account for the effect of the time intervals between milkings on the proportion of the expected total daily milk yield. By combining these 2 functions in a dynamic framework, the DLM was able to continuously forecast the amount of milk to be produced in a given milking. Data from 169,774 milkings on 5 different farms in 2 different countries were used in this study. A separate farm-specific implementation of the DLM was made for each of the 5 farms. To determine which factors would influence the forecast accuracy, the standardized forecast errors of the DLM were described with a linear mixed effects model (lme). This lme included lactation stage (early, middle, or late), somatic cell count (SCC) level (nonelevated or elevated), and whether or not the proper farm-specific version of the DLM was used. The standardized forecast errors of the DLM were only affected by SCC level and interactions between SCC level and lactation stage. Therefore, we concluded that the implementation of Wood's function combined with a second-degree polynomial is useful for dynamic modeling of milk yield in milking robots, and that this model has potential to be used as part of a mastitis detection system.     

Macrotexture influence on vibrational mechanisms of the tyre–road noise of an asphalt rubber pavement

The road surface is one of the most important factors that have influence on the current traffic noise. Usually, for dense surfaces, impacts of the tyre on the pavement generate vibrations which are the dominant mechanisms in the tyre–road noise. In this study, the effect of muffling these vibrations, by the incorporation of crumb rubber (CR) from wasted tyres into asphalt pavements, has been evaluated acoustically. Close proximity measurements have been carried out to register the sound emission generated in the contact zone between a reference tyre and an experimental asphalt pavement with CR. The analysis of the measurements indicates that the incorporation of CR as well as the air voids content has less influence than the macrotexture of the road surface on the acoustical behaviour of this experimental asphalt pavement.