The relationship between denitrifying bacteria and methanogenic bacteria in a mixed culture system of acclimated sludges

The interaction between denitrification and methanogenesis, with methanol functioning as an electron donor, has been examined through usage of a mixed culture system of denitrifying sludge and methanogenic sludge in an anaerobic bioreactor. Competition for methanol between these two kinds of biocommunity could not be observed, whereas methanogenesis was suppressed as long as nitrate and nitrite were made available in the mixed system. The inhibition of methanogenesis in the methanogenic sludge caused by nitrogen oxides was studied. The redox potential (E_h) of the culture was monitored and/or controlled for the sake of characterizing the behavior of the biocommunities. An addition of nitrite elevated the E_h of the culture less than nitrate did. Nitrite addition, however, exerted a stronger inhibitory effect on methanogenesis as compared to nitrate at the same concentration. The influence of redox potential on the methanation of methanol was examined by using a methanogenic sludge in the E_h-stat batch culture. The hypothesis that the inhibitory effect being expressed by the nitrogen oxides is not simply attributed to an elevation of the redox potential of the culture is supported by the experimental results. The toxic effect of the nitrogen oxides themselves could also have possibly contributed significantly.     

硅微纳结构及其在新型太阳电池中的应用

综述了近年来各种硅微纳结构的特征和制备技术,介绍了其在新型太阳电池中的应用现状与前景.首先,阐述了硅微纳结构在传统p-n结、新型径向p-n结以及异质结太阳电池结构设计中的研究进展;其次,从光吸收增强、表面修饰及钝化的角度,分析了硅微纳结构太阳电池的增效措施;最后,提出了柔性硅微纳结构太阳电池开发的新思路.     

Growth of Gallium Nitride Films on Multilayer Graphene Template Using Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition

In this work,the GaN thin films were directly deposited on multilayer graphene(MLG) by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition.The deposition was carried out at a low temperature using triethylgallium(TEGa) precursor and Ar/N_2/H_2 plasma.Chemical properties of the bulk GaN and GaN-graphene interface were analyzed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.The sharp interface between GaN and graphene was verified via X-ray reflectivity and transmission electron microscope.The microstructures and the nucleation behaviors of the GaN grown on graphene have been also studied.The results of grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and Raman spectrum indicate that the as-deposited sample is polycrystalline with wurtzite structure and has a weakly tensile stress.Optical properties of the sample were investigated by photoluminescence(PL) at room temperature.The successful growth of GaN on MLG at a low temperature opens up the possibility of ameliorating the performance of electronic and optical devices based on GaN/graphene heterojunction.     

InP/GaAsSb type-II DHBTs with GaAsSb/lnGaAs superlattice-base and GaAsSb bulk-base structures

High-performance InP/GaAsSb double heteroj unction bipolar transistor (DHBT) employing GaAsSb/lnGaAs superlattice-base structure is demonstrated and compared with GaAsSb bulk-base structure by two-dimensional simulation analysis. The proposed device exhibits a higher current gain of 257 than the conventional InP/GaAsSb type-II DHBT with a lower current gain of 180, attributed to the tynneling behavior of minority carriers in the GaAsSb/lnGaAs superlattice-base region under large forward base—emitter bias. In addition, a larger unity gain cutoff frequency of 19.1 GHz is botained for the superlattice-base device than that of 17.2 GHz for the bulk-base device.     

Discrimination of breast cancer by measuring prostate-specific antigen levels in women's serum

Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) has been reported to be a potential biomarker of breast cancer. Serum PSA of normal women is around 1 pg/mL, which is usually undetectable by current assay methods; thus an ultrasensitive measurement of PSA expression in women's serum is necessary to distinguish normal from malignant breast diseases. To enhance the sensitivity of conventional immunoassay technology for the detection of PSA in sera, we adopted a localized surface plasmon coupled fluorescence fiber-optic biosensor, which combines a sandwich immunoassay with the localized surface plasmon technique. The concentration of total PSA (t-PSA) (from 0.1 to 1000 pg/mL) in phosphate-buffered saline solution and the normalized fluorescence signal exhibit a linear relationship where the correlation coefficient is 0.9574. In addition, the concentration of additional t-PSA in 10-fold-diluted healthly women's serum across a similar range was measured. The correlation coefficient for this measurement is 0.9142. In clinical serum samples, moreover, the experimental results of t-PSA detection show that both the mean value and median of normalized fluorescence signals in the breast cancer group (155.2 and 145.7, respectively) are higher than those in the noncancer group (46.6 and 37.1, respectively). We also examined the receiver operating characteristic curve for t-PSA, and the area under the curve (AUC) is estimated to be 0.9063, the AUC being used to measure the performance of a test to correctly identify diseased and nondiseased subjects.     

Evaluation of Thermal Resistance Matrix Method for an Embedded Power Electronic Module

Thermal characterization provides data on the thermal performance of electronic components under given cooling conditions. The most common thermal characterization parameter used to characterize the behavior of electronic components is the thermal resistance. In this work, experiments are conducted to obtain thermal characterization data for different chips in a multichip package. Using this data, it is shown that the assumption of a linear temperature rise with input power is valid within the expected range of operation of the electronic module. Secondly, the applicability of a resistance matrix superposition methodology to the packaging structure of an integrated power electronic module is evaluated. The temperatures and the associated uncertainties involved in using the resistance matrix superposition method are compared to those obtained directly by powering all chips. It is shown that for any arbitrary power losses from the chips, the resistance matrix superposition method can predict the temperatures of a multichip package with reasonable accuracy for temperature rise up to 50degC.     

长波碲镉汞变面积二极管器件

采用不同钝化工艺制备了一系列具有不同P/A比的变面积光电二极管器件.在77~147 K温度范围对器件R_0A和1 000/T关系进行了分析,结果表明在该温度区间器件暗电流主要以扩散电流占主导.对器件的R_0A分布进行了研究,77 K下HgCdTe薄膜内的体缺陷及非均匀性对器件性能产生了重要的影响;127 K下由于体扩散电流增加,缺陷对器件的作用显著弱化.77 K和127 K下器件R_0A随P/A比增大而减小,表明表面效应对器件具有重要的影响.基于Vishnu Gopal模型对器件1/R_0A值和P/A关系进行了拟合分析,证实了器件存在较大的表面漏电现象,且通过表面钝化工艺的改进,有效减小了表面效应对器件性能的影响.     

Localized surface plasmon coupled fluorescence fiber-optic biosensor with gold nanoparticles

A novel fiber-optic biosensor based on a localized surface plasmon coupled fluorescence (LSPCF) system is proposed and developed. This biosensor consists of a biomolecular complex in a sandwich format of . It is immobilized on the surface of an optical fiber where a complex forms the fluorescence probe and is produced by mixing Cy5-labeled antibody and protein A conjugated gold nanoparticles (Au-PA). The LSPCF is excited by localized surface plasmon on the GNP surface where the evanescent field is applied near the core surface of the optical fiber. At the same time, the fluorescence signal is detected by a photomultiplier tube located beside the unclad optical fiber with high collection efficiency. Experimentally, this novel LSPCF biosensor is able to detect mouse immunoglobulin G (IgG) at a minimum concentration of 1 pg/mL (7 fM) during the biomolecular interaction of the IgG with anti-mouse IgG. The analysis is expanded by a discussion of the amplification of the LSPCF intensity by GNP coupling, and overall, this LSPCF biosensor is confirmed experimentally as a biosensor with very high sensitivity.     

Enhanced optical confinement and lasing characteristics of individual urchin-like ZnO microstructures prepared by oxidation of metallic Zn

We prepared urchin-like micron-sized ZnO cavities with high optical quality by oxidizing metallic Zn and proposed the mechanism that resulted in the growth of the urchin-like microstructures. The photoluminescence spectra of the ZnO microstructures had a predominant excitonic emission at room temperature. The lasing properties of the urchin-like ZnO microstructures were investigated systematically through excitation power- and size-dependent photoluminescence measurements. The results showed that a low lasing threshold with high quality factors could be achieved because of the high reflectivity of the optical reflectors formed by the tapered nanowires. The unique optical characteristics may facilitate the development of high-efficiency random lasers.