Porous silicon & titanium dioxide coatings prepared by atmospheric pressure plasma jet chemical vapour deposition technique-a novel coating technology for photovoltaic modules

Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet (APPJ) is an alternative for wet processes used to make anti reflection coatings and smooth substrate surface for the PV module. It is also an attractive technique because of it’s high growth rate, low power consumption, lower cost and absence of high cost vacuum systems. This work deals with the deposition of silicon oxide from hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) thin films and titanium dioxide from tetraisopropyl ortho titanate using an atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) system in open air conditions. A sinusoidal high voltage with a frequency between 19-23 kHz at power up to 1000 W was applied between two tubular electrodes separated by a dielectric material. The jet, characterized by Tg ~ 600-800 K, was mostly laminar (Re ~ 1200) at the nozzle exit and became partially turbulent along the jet axis (Re ~ 3300). The spatially resolved emission spectra showed OH, N2, N2+ and CN molecular bands and O, H, N, Cu and Cr lines as well as the NO2 chemiluminescence continuum (450-800 nm). Thin films with good uniformity on the substrate were obtained at high deposition rate, between 800 -1000 nm.s-1, and AFM results revealed that coatings are relatively smooth (Ra ~ 2 nm). The FTIR and SEM analyses were better used to monitor the chemical composition and the morphology of the films in function of the different experimental conditions. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/2790

EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT PARAMETERS FOR PLANT CLASSIFICATION BY PRE-TRAINED DEEP LEARNING MODELS WITH BIGEARTHNET DATASET

Vegetation monitoring and mapping are essential for a diverse range of environmental problems such as forest management, food resources, and climate change assessment. Several methods have been developed to classify different vegetation types based on remote sensing (RS) data. Land use classification has been revolutionized with the advent of neural networks. Various vegetation types were classified using multispectral Sentinel-2 satellite images due to their high spatial resolution and spectral information. Deep Convolutional Neural Network is considered a promising method for classifying remote sensing images with high spatial resolution due to its powerful feature extraction capabilities. However, large labeled datasets are required for better classification performance, so we have used pre-trained ResNet networks with 152 layers, 50 layers, and 101 layers trained on Big Earth Net (BEN). In order to obtain the best network performance and evaluate the sensitivity of the parameters in this study, we have performed two experiments: 1) the effect of different patch sizes and 2) increasing the number of images. The results demonstrate that ResNet 152 shows the highest accuracy with patches of 120 × 120 pixels, with an accuracy of 76.62%, and ResNet 50 is the best with an accuracy of 76.2% since the process of this network does not take much time

The energy-water nexus: Renewable energy and water desalination

The essential connection between energy and water, also defined as the energy-water nexus, has been recognized by scientists and policy makers worldwide. Integrated solutions and policies that consider both energy and water aspects into future planning have been developing at a fast pace. In this paper, we review the state of the art of the energy-water nexus, with particular focus on the integration between renewable energy and desalination technologies. We also model the integration of reverse osmosis (RO) desalination and solar photovoltaics in an edge-of-grid coastal town in Western Australia. The current literature agrees on the sustainable use of renewable energy sources to improve the water-energy nexus in the context of water desalination. Although the integration of solar and wind energy with desalination technologies is a mature and well-proven solution at both small and large scales, the intermittency and fluctuating nature of wind and solar power still constitute the main technical challenge that has limited the diffusion of renewable energy powered desalination on a large scale. Several successful applications of renewable energy powered desalination in remote, off the grid, locations have tackled the issue of power intermittency by the use of batteries and diesel generators. Such systems often couple reverse osmosis desalination with solar photovoltaic energy. Large desalination plants have been successfully connected to wind farms and grid electricity to secure uninterrupted plant operations, thus meeting water targets in large-scale systems. Our review identifies a knowledge gap in the integration of decentralized energy systems, e.g. rooftop solar photovoltaic, with small scale RO desalination. Such configuration would benefit those regional towns that have historically suffered from weak and unreliable connections to the electricity grid, thus helping them secure both their energy and water requirements. The modelling exercise on a renewable energy powered RO plant in an edge-of-grid town in Western Australia has identified an operating strategy that maximizes the renewable energy fraction and secures the annual supply of water. The system involves operating the RO unit for six months of the year at a daily variable load and integrating solar energy with grid electricity. Careful evaluation of the RO performance under such operating conditions is necessary to ensure a safe and reliable water treatment process. A niche in the literature of the energy-water nexus has been identified in the integration of rooftop solar photovoltaic, grid electricity and desalination technologies applied in a regional context. A future study will consider the rollout of rooftop solar photovoltaic installations across the whole town, thus enabling the active engagement of the community by integrating the households’ energy demand response patterns to the operations of both rooftop photovoltaics and the desalination unit

The energy-water nexus: Renewable energy and water desalination

The essential connection between energy and water, also defined as the energy-water nexus, has been recognized by scientists and policy makers worldwide. Integrated solutions and policies that consider both energy and water aspects into future planning have been developing at a fast pace. In this paper, we review the state of the art of the energy-water nexus, with particular focus on the integration between renewable energy and desalination technologies. We also model the integration of reverse osmosis (RO) desalination and solar photovoltaics in an edge-of-grid coastal town in Western Australia. The current literature agrees on the sustainable use of renewable energy sources to improve the water-energy nexus in the context of water desalination. Although the integration of solar and wind energy with desalination technologies is a mature and well-proven solution at both small and large scales, the intermittency and fluctuating nature of wind and solar power still constitute the main technical challenge that has limited the diffusion of renewable energy powered desalination on a large scale. Several successful applications of renewable energy powered desalination in remote, off the grid, locations have tackled the issue of power intermittency by the use of batteries and diesel generators. Such systems often couple reverse osmosis desalination with solar photovoltaic energy. Large desalination plants have been successfully connected to wind farms and grid electricity to secure uninterrupted plant operations, thus meeting water targets in large-scale systems. Our review identifies a knowledge gap in the integration of decentralized energy systems, e.g. rooftop solar photovoltaic, with small scale RO desalination. Such configuration would benefit those regional towns that have historically suffered from weak and unreliable connections to the electricity grid, thus helping them secure both their energy and water requirements. The modelling exercise on a renewable energy powered RO plant in an edge-of-grid town in Western Australia has identified an operating strategy that maximizes the renewable energy fraction and secures the annual supply of water. The system involves operating the RO unit for six months of the year at a daily variable load and integrating solar energy with grid electricity. Careful evaluation of the RO performance under such operating conditions is necessary to ensure a safe and reliable water treatment process. A niche in the literature of the energy-water nexus has been identified in the integration of rooftop solar photovoltaic, grid electricity and desalination technologies applied in a regional context. A future study will consider the rollout of rooftop solar photovoltaic installations across the whole town, thus enabling the active engagement of the community by integrating the households’ energy demand response patterns to the operations of both rooftop photovoltaics and the desalination unit

Enhancement of NMP degradation under UV light by nitrogen-doped TiO2 thin films using a design of experiment

Doping nitrogen within TiO2 is an effective way to enhance visible light photocatalysis due to a direct electron excitation from the N2p states within the band gap. However, nitrogen doping is not always efficient for UV photocatalytic activity. Here, different structures of N-doped TiO2 (TiOxNy) have been prepared by reactive RF (13.56 MHz) magnetron sputtering. The morphological, optical, structural, and photocatalytic properties of the films have been studied in order to investigate the competitive effect of the morphology and the chemical composition on the efficiency of the photocatalytic activity. The variation of surface wettability of the film over time in the dark and under visible and UV irradiation was also studied. The reduction in wettability by dark storage can be explained by the adsorption of hydrocarbon contamination on the thin film’s surface. Additionally, from water contact angle experiments, it was found that these films developed hydrophilic properties upon UV and visible illumination. The photoinduced change in the contact angle of water was due to the removal of hydrocarbon contamination on the surface and also the photo-oxidation of the water droplet. Samples prepared at high pressure gave the best photocatalytic activity, even though the deposition rate was lower at higher pressures (lower film thicknesses), due to the high specific surface area and the optimal presence of TiOxNy crystals in the lattice. However, at low pressure, the TiN crystals became more predominant, and acted as recombination centers for the photo-generated charge carriers. A design of experiments was used in order to optimize the deposition parameters to have the best photocatalytic activity. The high photocatalytic activity under UV light was found to be due to the introduction of discrete energy levels within the band gap, the increased sample wettability, and the higher specific surface area. However, the post annealing process did not effect the activity under UV irradiation. Using the response surface methodology, RSM, based on a design of experiment, DOE, we are able to achieve a good understanding of the complex processes involved in the deposition of the thin films and their effect on the photocatalytic activity. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/930

Aggregating energy supply and demand

Energy usage in general, and electricity usage in particular, are major concerns internationally due to the increased cost of providing energy supplies and the environmental impacts of electricity generation using carbon-based fuels. If a "systems" approach is taken to understanding energy issues then both supply and demand need to be considered holistically. This paper examines two research projects in the energy area with IT tools as key deliverables, one examining supply issues and the other studying demand side issues. The supply side project used hard engineering methods to build the models and software, while the demand side project used a social science approach. While the projects are distinct, there was an overlap in personnel. Comparing the knowledge extraction, model building, implementation and interface issues of these two deliverables identifies both interesting contrasts and commonalities

Assessment of breast cancer risk factors in asymptomatic hospital staff women aged 32-59: A descriptive report

Objective: Iranian breast cancer patients are relatively younger than their Western counterparts. The objective of the present study was to investigate risk factors for breast cancer in Iranian women and compare it with other data driven from other studies. Methods: A study was conducted in April 2008 in Tehran, Iran. Demographical data and risk factor related information, including data from their mammograms were collected using a questionnaire. Results: In all, 109 participants were interviewed. The mean age of participants was 40.48 ± 0.56 years. 1.8 of women were unmarried, while 78 were married and 20.2 were divorced/widowed. The mean age for menarche was 13.34 ±1.47 years and 46.89±4.98 for the menopause, respectively. The mean parity time was 2.36±1.13 and breastfeeding in women was 23.27±14.16 months. About 5.5 of the participants used oral contraceptive as a method for contraception. 8.3 of women experienced menopause, at the mean age of 46.89±4.98. 33.3 of menopaused women, used Hormone Replace Therapy (HRT).Moreover, 8.3 of women had a positive history of breast cancer in their family. Of those women on whom mammography was done, 10.1 had breast mass in radiological findings, mostly in favour of fibrocystic change. In 20.2 of participants, further investigation was advised. Conclusion: The findings of the present study were in accordance with other studies done in Iran and in some aspects in tune with other studies about breast cancer in other countries. However, more multicentric larger scale studies should be conducted in Iran to determine a pattern for breast cancer in Iranian women

Design principles for metastable standing molecules

Molecular nanofabrication with a scanning probe microscope (SPM) is a promising route toward the prototyping of metastable functional molecular structures and devices which do not form spontaneously. The aspect of mechanical stability is crucial for such structures, especially if they extend into the third dimension vertical to the surface. A prominent example is freestanding molecules fabricated on a metal which can function as field emitters or electric field sensors. Improving the stability of such molecular configurations is an optimization task involving many degrees of freedom and therefore best tackled by computational nanostructure design. Here, we use density functional theory to study 3,4,9,10-perylene-tetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA) standing on the Ag(111) surface as well as on the tip of a scanning probe microscope. We cast our results into a simple set of design principles for such metastable structures, the validity of which we subsequently demonstrate in two computational case studies. Our work proves the capabilities of computational nanostructure design in the field of metastable molecular structures and offers the intuition needed to fabricate new devices without tedious trial and error

The effects of resveratrol treatment on Bcl-2 and bax gene expression in endometriotic compared with non-endometriotic stromal cells

Background: We aimed to examine resveratrol effects on gene expression of Bcl-2, Bax and Bcl-2/Bax ratio in endometrial stromal cells derived from women with and without endometriosis. Methods: Endometrial tissues were obtained from 40 endometriotic patients and 15 non-endometriotic controls undergoing laparoscopic surgery or hysterectomy in the gynecology ward of Rassoul Akram Hospital, Tehran, Iran from 2015 to 2017. After the enzymatic digestion, eutopic (EuESCs) and ectopic (EESCs) endometrial stromal cells from patients with endometriosis as well as endometrial stromal cells from non-endometriotic controls (CESCs) were treated with or without resveratrol (100 µM) and the levels of Bcl-2, Bax and Bcl-2/Bax gene expression ratio in the cells from all origins were examined at 6, 24 and 48 h post-treatment by real-time PCR. Results: Resveratrol treatment increased Bcl-2 expression in CESCs at 24 and 48 h and in EuESCs at 48 h (P<0.05), but had no significant effects on the expression of this gene in EESCs. On the other hand, resveratrol treatment increased Bax expression in EuESCs at 6 h and decreased its expression in EESCs at 48 h (P<0.05). Regarding the Bcl-2/Bax gene expression ratio, resveratrol treatment increased Bcl-2/Bax gene expression ratio in CESCs and EuESCs at 48 h (P<0.01). However, this treatment had no significant differential effect on Bcl-2 and Bcl-2/Bax gene expression ratio between CESCs and EuESCs at 48 h. Conclusion: Resveratrol treatment significantly increased Bcl-2/Bax gene expression ratio in EuESCs and CESCs but had no significant effect in EESCs. © 2020, Iranian Journal of Public Health. All rights reserved

The effect of the eye movement desensitization and reprocessing intervention on anxiety and depression among patients undergoing hemodialysis: A randomized controlled trial

Author's accepted version (postprint).This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Wiley in Perspectives in psychiatric care on 29/04/2019.Available online: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ppc.12389acceptedVersio