Highly Improved Sb2S3 Sensitized‐Inorganic–Organic Heterojunction Solar Cells and Quantification of Traps by Deep‐Level Transient Spectroscopy

The light‐harvesting Sb₂S₃ surface on mesoporous‐TiO₂ in inorganic–organic heterojunction solar cells is sulfurized with thioacetamide (TA). The photovoltaic performances are compared before and after TA treatment, and the state of the Sb₂S₃ is investigated by X‐ray diffraction, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and deep‐level transient spectroscopy (DLTS). Although there are no differences in crystallinity and composition, the TA‐treated solar cells exhibit significantly enhanced performance compared to pristine Sb₂S₃‐sensitized solar cells. From DLTS analysis, the performance enhancement is mainly attributed to the extinction of trap sites, which are present at a density of (2–5) × 10¹⁴ cm^?3 in Sb₂S₃, by TA treatment. Through such a simple treatment, the cell records an overall power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.5% through a metal mask under simulated illumination (AM 1.5G, 100 mW cm^–2) with a very high open circuit voltage of 711.0 mV. This PCE is, thus far, the highest reported for fully solid‐state chalcogenide‐sensitized solar cells.     

Design and analysis of novel quorum-based sink location service scheme in wireless sensor networks

Geographic routing in wireless sensor networks requires sources nodes to be aware of the location information of sinks to send their data. To provide the sink location service, quorum-based schemes have been proposed, which exploit crossing points between a quorum of a sink location announcement (SLA) message from a sink and a quorum of a sink location query (SLQ) message from a source node. For guaranteeing at least one crossing point in irregular sensor networks with void areas or irregular boundaries, the previous schemes however collect and flood the network boundary information or forward a SLA and SLQ message along the whole network boundary. In this paper, we design a novel quorum-based sink location service scheme that exploits circle and line quorums, which does not require the network boundary information and send a SLA and SLQ message along the whole network boundary. In the proposed scheme, a source node sends a SLQ message to the network center and sends another SLQ message to an edge node in the network boundary, thus generating a SLQ line quorum. On the other hand, a sink node sends a SLA message along a circle path whose center is the network center, thus forming a SLQ circle quorum. By this way, it is guaranteed that the SLQ and SLA quorums have at least one crossing point in irregular sensor networks. Both numerical analysis and extensive simulation results verify that the proposed scheme outperforms the existing schemes in terms of the delivery distance, the delivery hop count, and the energy consumption for providing sink location service.     

水下光声混合网络评价(英文)

The deployment of underwater networks allows researchers to collect explorative and monitoring data on underwater ecosystems.The acoustic medium has been widely adopted in current research and commercial uses,while the optical medium remains experimental only.According to our survey onthe properties of acoustic and optical communicationsand preliminary simulation results have shown significant trade-offs between bandwidth,propagation delay,power consumption,and effective communication range.We propose a hybrid solution that combines the use of acoustic and optical communication in order to overcome the bandwidth limitation of the acoustic channel by enabling optical communicationwith the help of acoustic-assisted alignment between optical transmitters and receivers.     

Antimicrobial performance of alkaline ionic fluid (GC-100X) and its ability to remove Escherichia coli O157:H7 from the surface of tomatoes

An efficacy test of GC-100X, a noncorrosive alkaline ionic fluid (pH 12) composed of free radicals and supplemented with xylitol, was carried out against six major foodborne pathogens-Staphylococcus aureus FRI 913, Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis ATCC 13076, S. enterica serovar Typhimurium DT104 Korean isolate, Vibrio parahaemolyticus ATCC 17803, Escherichia coli O157:H7 ATCC 43894, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa KCTC 1637-at three different temperatures (4, 25, and 36 degrees C) with or without organic load (2% yeast extract). Results revealed a more than 4-log10 (CFU/ml) reduction (1.0 x 10(4) CFU/ml reduction) against all pathogens reacted at 37 degrees C for 3 h in the absence of organic material. GC-100X solution diluted with an equal volume of distilled or standard hard water (300 ppm CaCO3) showed effective bactericidal activity, particularly against gram-negative bacteria. Washing efficacy of GC-100X solution was compared against E. coli O157:H7 on cherry tomato surfaces with those of a commercially used detergent and chlorine water (100 ppm). Viable cell counts of E. coli O157:H7 that had penetrated to the cores of tomatoes after sanitizing treatment revealed that GC-100X stock and its 5% diluted solutions had similar washing effects to 100-ppm chlorine water and were more effective than the other kitchen detergent. These results indicate that GC-100X has good bactericidal and sanitizing activities and is useful as a new sanitizer for food safety and kitchen hygiene.     

Temperature Distribution of a Low Temperature Heat Pipe with Multiple Heaters for Electronic Cooling

A numerical study has been performed to predict the characteristics on the transient operation of the heat pipe with multiple heaters for electronic cooling. The model of the heat pipe was composed of the evaporator section with four heaters, insulated transport section, and the condensor section with a conductor which is cooled with uniform heat flux condition to surrounding. The governing equations and the boundary conditions were solved by the generalized PHOENICS computational code employing the finite volume method. Two test cases are investigated in present study; Case 1 indicates that the 1st and 2nd heaters among four heating sources are heated off, while the 3rd and 4th heaters are heated on. Case 2 is the inverse situation switched from heating location of Case 1. The results show that the transient time to reach the steady state is shorter for Case 1 than for Case 2. Especially, the temperature difference of the heater during switching operation is relatively small compared to the maximum all- owable operating temperature difference in electronic system. Hence, it is predicted that the heat pipe in present study operates with thermally good reliability even for switching the heaters.     

Telomerase activity and telomere lengths in various cell lines: changes of telomerase activity can be another method for chemosensitivity evaluation

For the cancer cells which have overcome the second mitotic clock (M2), activated telomerase is essential and used as another marker of immortality. Many trials had been initiated to target telomerase, which is known to be specific to tumors. To determine the best in vitro cell system for testing the efficacy of telomerase inhibitors, we evaluated the telomerase activity of various cancer cell lines and measured their telomere lengths. We also treated some cancer cell lines with adriamycin and measured the changes of telomerase activity. Telomerase activity was evaluated in various cell lines with the TRAP (telomeric repeat amplification protocol) assay. Telomerase activity was calculated and translated into arbitrary units by computer-assisted densitometry with the control of telomerase activity in the 293 control cell line. Also, terminal restriction fragment lengths were measured using Southern blotting. We also measured telomerase activity and telomere lengths in 11 benign breast tumor tissues and 19 paired stomach cancer and normal tissues. Cancer cell lines treated with adriamycin we evaluated for changes of telomerase activity and the cell proliferation by MTT assay and dye exclusion test. Telomerase activity of cell lines was 95.3 24.1 unit with a range of 27.6-129.6 unit, while the telomere lengths of those cell lines were variable from 5.0 to 10.4 kbp with a median of 6 kbp. In 11 cancer cell lines which were not yet firmly established, we could not detect any telomerase activity. Low telomerase activity was detected in only 2 benign tumor tissues of breast with a median telomere length of 8.8 (7-10.5) kbp. Among paired 19 gastric cancer and normal tissues, only 7 cancer tissues showed weak telomerase activity. After adriamycin treatment, telomerase activity in YCC-S-1, YCC-S-3, MCF-7 and MCF-7/ADR was decreased in accordance with the changes of the cell numbers. Telomerase is specific to cancer tissues and is expressed differently from organ to organ. Telomerase activity by TRAP assay could be used as a chemosensitivity assay.     

Blood eosinophils and serum IgE as predictors for prognosis of interferon-gamma therapy in atopic dermatitis

BACKGROUND: Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) therapy has been reported to be effective in atopic dermatitis. However, IFN-gamma therapy in atopic dermatitis has not yet been well established. In this study, immunologic variables were evaluated as predictors for the prognosis of IFN-gamma therapy in atopic dermatitis. METHODS: Sixty-eight atopic dermatitis patients were each treated 18 times with 2 x 10(6) units/m2 IFN-gamma. Blood IgE level, eosinophil percentage, eosinophil count, and levels of IFN-gamma, interleukin-4 (IL-4), IL-5, and IL-10 were investigated. According to clinical responses, patients were classified into three groups: patients with improved clinical severity scores of over 20% were included in group A; those with improved scores of 20% or less in group B; and those with no improvement in group C. RESULTS: Serum IgE levels and blood eosinophil percentages were the lowest in group A. Most atopic dermatitis patients with an eosinophil percentage over 9% and IgE level over 1500 IU/ml did not respond to IFN-gamma therapy. Initial IL-10 levels were the highest in group A. IL-4 levels in group A, and IL-5 and IL-10 levels in all groups were significantly decreased by IFN-gamma therapy. CONCLUSIONS: IFN-gamma therapy may be recommended for atopic dermatitis patients with blood eosinophil percentages less than 9% and serum IgE levels less than 1500 IU/ml.     

Investigation of ethylene and styrene copolymerization initiated with dinuclear constrained geometry catalysts holding polymethylene as a bridging ligand and indenyl as a cyclopentadienyl derivative

A series of polymethylene‐bridged dinuclear constrained geometry catalysts (CGC) [Me₂Si(Ind)(N^tBu) TiCl₂]₂[(CH₂)_n] ( 1 , n = 6; 2 , n = 9; 3 , n = 12) were synthesized to study the copolymerization of ethylene and styrene. The experiments display that the polymerization activity of the dinuclear catalysts increased in the order of 1 < 2 < 3 , which indicated that the dinuclear CGC with the longest methylene units as a bridge showed the greatest activity. According to the activity correlation with the monomer ratio, all the catalysts exhibited maximum polymerization activity at the monomer ratio of ([styrene]/[ethylene]) of 2. The dinuclear CGC 2 and 3 represented excellent characteristics of styrene reactivity while catalyst 1 represented considerably low styrene reactivity. The relation between the molecular weights of the polymers and the catalysts used in the polymerization is not straightforward. The steric interference in catalyst 1 , containing just six methylene bridges, can be applied to explain not only the strikingly decreased activity but also the very low styrene content in the copolymer. In contrast, the electronic effect seems to be more pronounced in manipulating the polymerization properties of catalysts 2 and 3 having nine and 12 methylene bridges, respectively. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 90: 2469–2474, 2003     

Electrostatic potential due to a potential drop across a slit

The electrostatic potential and charge density due to a potential drop across a slit in a thick conducting plane are obtained in analytic closed form. The Fourier transform, mode matching, and superposition are used to represent the potential in the spectral domain. The residue calculus is applied to represent the potential distribution in converging series form. Numerical computations are performed to illustrate the charge-density distribution through a slit