Development of a new heterojunction structure (ACJ -HIT) and its application to polycrystalline silicon solar cells

A new solar cell structure named HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer) has been developed based on new artificially constructed junction (ACJ) technology. In this structure a non-doped a-Si thin layer was inserted between the p(a-Si)/n(c-Si) heterojunction, improving the output characteristics and achieving a conversion efficiency of 18.1%. This structure was applied to cast polycrystalline silicon solar cells of a practical size. A high conversion efficeincy of 13.6% was obtained with a cell size of 10 cm × 10 cm using various technologies, including hydrogen plasma passivation.     

Characteristics of a-Si solar cells prepared by the super chamber at a high substrate temperature

A new approach to high-performance a-Si solar cells was studied. a-Si films prepared at a high substrate temperature (> 250°C) have a higher absorption coefficient and a low Si H₂ bond density. the effect of deposition temperature on the open-circuit voltage (V_oc) has been investigated systematically for glass/SnO2 Ipin/metal and glass/metal/nip/indium tin oxide (ITO) structure a-Si solar cells. The V_oc is found to depend strongly on the thermal history of the p/i interface. A short-circuit current of 19.5 mA/cm⁻⁻² was achieved for an a-Si solar cell using an a-Si i-layer with a thickness of 4000 Å, which was prepared at a substrate temperature of 270°C.     

Comparison of methods for assessing observer metamerism

Studies on observer metamerism reported so far are classified into two series. One is studies based on the color-matching functions of Stiles's 20 observers. The other is experimental studies by using the Davidson and Hemmendinger (D-H) Color Rule and color-normal actual observers. The large discrepancy of the degree of observer metamerism between the above two series of studies was analyzed by using the color-matching functions of Stiles's 20 observers and the D–H Color Rule. The results confirmed that the discrepancy in the observer-metamerism indices was caused by different computational procedures used for deriving the indices.     

Wide area network discrete feedback control on FastADR of a cluster of building air‐conditioning facilities

Building air‐conditioning facilities are promising resources of the fast automated demand response (FastADR) aggregation. However, designing a closed‐loop control includes problems of strong nonlinear dynamic properties of the facility and large sampling period due to building facility communications. This paper proposes an original aggregated transfer function that approximates hundreds of air‐conditioners with large wide area network communication delays. © 2016 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Supercritical drying of SiO2-TiO2 sol-pillared clays

The interlayers of montmorillonite clay were pillared with silica-titania sol particles by ion exchange in aqueous solutions. The water in the pillared clay was substituted with ethanol which was in turn extracted with CO₂ under supercritical conditions. This drying procedure avoids the formation of liquid-vapour interfaces which give rise to shrinkage of the swelled pillared structure. Highly porous structures with well developed card-house structures resulted. The pore structure was investigated and compared with that of samples prepared by conventional air-drying procedures.     

Phenotypes and invariant alpha beta TCR expression of peripheral V alpha 14+ NK T cells

A novel subset of peripheral T cells, peripheral NK T cells, is found to be a major population comprising 5% of splenic T and 40% of bone marrow T cells. The majority of peripheral NK T cells are characterized by the expression of an invariant TCR-alpha encoded by V alpha 14/J alpha 281 with a one nucleotide N region. Moreover, a specific reduction of V alpha 14+ NK T cells has been demonstrated to be tightly associated with various autoimmune diseases, indicating their decisive role in autoimmune disease development. In this study, we investigated the phenotypes of peripheral V alpha 14+ NK T cells and their TCR-beta repertoire. Peripheral V alpha 14+ NK T cells, comprise two populations, i.e., small and large sized cells, at an equal frequency, belonged to the CD4- CD8- fraction, and are heat stable antigen(bright), macrophage-1bright, B220bright, CD45RBdim, and Mel-14dim, but CD5-, distinct from thymic NK T cells. TCR-beta analysis clearly showed that peripheral V alpha 14+ NK T cells utilized two to three dominant invariant TCR-beta, such as V beta 8.2 D beta J beta 2.5/V beta 7 D beta J beta 2.1 in the spleen and liver, V beta 8.2 D beta J beta 2.5/V beta 8.3 D beta J beta 2.2/V beta 7 D beta J beta 2.6 in the bone marrow, and V beta 7 D beta J beta 2.1/V beta 3 D beta J beta 1.2 in intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes. Judging from the unusual surface phenotypes, such as heat stable antigen, macrophage-1, B220, CD45RBdim, and Mel-14dim, which are known to be T cell activation markers, peripheral V alpha 14+ NK T cells may always be activated under physiologic conditions, resulting in the oligoclonal expansion of V alpha 14+ NK T cells with different invariant TCR-beta in different peripheral organs. The unique features of V alpha 14+ NK T cells are discussed.