Selenization of electrodeposited copper–indium alloy thin films for solar cell applications

Copper–Indium (Cu–In) alloys with sulfur and selenium have technological importance in the development of thin film solar cell technology. We have used potentiostatic electrochemical technique with three-electrode geometry for the deposition of Cu–In alloy thin films in an aqueous electrolyte. Cathodic voltammetry (CV) was thoroughly studied to optimize the electrodeposition parameters. The deposition potential for Cu–In alloy was found to be in the range ?0.70 to ?0.85 V versus Ag/AgCl reference electrode. Polycrystalline Cu_xIn_y thin films were electrodeposited from aqueous bath at room temperature and 45 °C. Effect of concentration of citric acid was extensively studied by CV measurements. The as-deposited Cu–In films were characterized with a range of characterization techniques to study the structural, morphological, compositional and electrical properties. Thin layers of Cu–In were selenized in a homemade tubular furnace at 400 ^°C, which reveals the formation of polycrystalline CuInSe₂ (CISe) thin films with tetragonal structure. The band gap of CISe thin film was estimated ~1.05 eV by optical absorption spectroscopy. Nearly stoichiometric CISe thin film, Cu = 25.25 %, In = 26.48 % and Se = 48.27 % was obtained after selenization. The linear behavior of current density–voltage (J–V) was observed for Cu–In alloy thin films whereas, the selenized Cu–In alloy films (CISe) possess rectifying properties.     

Identifying Novel Osteoarthritis-Associated Genes in Human Cartilage Using a Systematic Meta-Analysis and a Multi-Source Integrated Network

Osteoarthritis, the most common joint disorder, is characterised by deterioration of the articular cartilage. Many studies have identified potential therapeutic targets, yet no effective treatment has been determined. The aim of this study was to identify and rank osteoarthritis-associated genes and micro-RNAs to prioritise those most integral to the disease. A systematic meta-analysis of differentially expressed mRNA and micro-RNAs in human osteoarthritic cartilage was conducted. Ingenuity pathway analysis identified cellular senescence as an enriched pathway, confirmed by a significant overlap (p < 0.01) with cellular senescence drivers (CellAge Database). A co-expression network was built using genes from the meta-analysis as seed nodes and combined with micro-RNA targets and SNP datasets to construct a multi-source information network. This accumulated and connected 1689 genes which were ranked based on node and edge aggregated scores. These bioinformatic analyses were confirmed at the protein level by mass spectrometry of the different zones of human osteoarthritic cartilage (superficial, middle, and deep) compared to normal controls. This analysis, and subsequent experimental confirmation, revealed five novel osteoarthritis-associated proteins (PPIB, ASS1, LHDB, TPI1, and ARPC4-TTLL3). Focusing future studies on these novel targets may lead to new therapies for osteoarthritis.     

Assessment of ponds surrounding Imphal Valley on the basis of various biological and physicochemical parameters

The water quality is one of the major criteria for the environmental evaluation based on the parametric changes in the physicochemical and biological properties of water. The distribution patterns of physicochemical and biological characteristics of the various rivers in the Imphal Valley have been studied in this work. The objective of the work is to determine the surface water quality of Imphal Valley to assess its suitability for domestic purposes. The physicochemical parameters of water such as water temperature, pH, hardness, alkalinity, EC, TDS, chloride, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium and nitrate were analysed for the experimentation. The biological characteristics were estimated from the Total coliform and Escherichia coli content of water. The physicochemical parameters were within the acceptable limits on the other hand Total coliform, and E. coli values were exceeding from the acceptable and permissible limits as prescribed by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). The study suggests untreated domestic disposal from market and household to the water body causes heavy pollution in rivers of Imphal Valley.     

An approach of feature selection using graph-theoretic heuristic and hill climbing

Pattern Analysis and Applications - Search-based methods that use matrix- or vector-based representations of the dataset are commonly employed to solve the problem of feature selection. These...     

A Survey of Localization Systems in Internet of Things

Mobile Networks and Applications - With the rapid development in wireless technologies and the Internet, the Internet of Things (IoT) is envisioned to be an integral part of our daily lives....