Rapid annealing of Perovskite solar cell thin film materials through intense pulse light.

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have garnered a great attention due to their rapid efficiency improvement using cheap and solution processable materials that can be adapted for scalable high-speed automated manufacturing. Thin film perovskite photovoltaics (PVs) are typically fabricated in an inert environment, such as nitrogen glovebox, through a set of deposition and annealing steps, each playing a significant role on the power conversion efficiency (PCE), reproducibility, and stability of devices. However, atmospheric processing of PSCs would achieve lucrative commercialization. Therefore, it is necessary to utilize materials and methods that enable successful fabrication of efficient PSCs in the ambient environment. The lab scale experiments have been dominated using deposition methods, such as spin-coating or thermal evaporation in vacuum, which are not adaptable for automation; hence, taking advantage of scalable deposition methods, such as inkjet printing, is necessary for automation. Besides deposition, post process annealing is a pivotal aspect which crystallizes the thin film materials and determines the performance and stability of PSCs. Therefore, it is necessary to further investigate this step and develop new methods and utilize potential materials vi that are amenable for scalable, high-throughput, and cost-effective automated manufacturing of PSCs. Conventional methods have successfully resulted in efficient labscale PSCs using prolong and high temperature annealing; however, industrialization requires rapid annealing methods that allow for scalable, high-speed, and cost-effective manufacturing of efficient PSCs in the ambient environment. Intense pulse light is a rapid annealing method (IPL) that allows for the lucrative, scalable, and high throughput atmospheric processing of PSCs; thus, it is necessary to study the photothermal impact on the morphology and phase evolution of the thin film materials and develop ambient processable precursors that yield efficient perovskite modules. IPL exerts intermittent millisecond(s) duration flashes carrying energetic photons to anneal the material, and the parameters of flash energy, duration, count, and interval time between flashes determine the annealing extent and affect the PV performance of PSCs. This dissertation investigates the impact of these parameters on the morphology, phase change, and conductivity of the potential PSC thin films using various material characterization techniques of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL), impedance spectroscopy (IS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV-Vis, as well as voltammetry, by introducing a novel additive and annealing approaches which allow for rapid fabrication of PSCs, and is applicable for rapid, cost-effective, and scalable automated fabrication of PSCs

Gestión inteligente del estacionamiento empleando internet de las cosas

The main requirement of smart cities is intelligent and effective parking system, which currently most parking systems exist basedon various technologies such as Internet of Things, so intelligent parking management is gradually becoming a necessity. Hence inthis article a new manner is introduced in the form of prioritization, which alters the type of prioritization than the previous methods, sothat the different parameters such as the distance between parking lots, distance between vehicle and a parking lot, number of freeparking spaces in the destination parking lot, number of unsuccessful parks, and the number of parking lot visits are considered, and ingeneral a system is recommended that helps drivers to find a parking lot with the minimum cost based on the aforesaid parameters. Thesimulation of proposed approach performed in Arena application and the results of the simulation and its comparison with theprevious works suggest that the proposed method results in the better decrease of the waiting time than the existing waiting timein the previous works and contributes to minimize drivers waiting time

Cascaded CNN method for far object detection in outdoor surveillance

In maritime surveillance, detection of small ships and vessels located far away in the scene is of vital importance for behaviour analysis. Comparing to closely located objects, far objects are often captured in a smaller size and lack the adequate amount of details. Therefore, conventional detectors fail to recognize them. This paper proposes a CNN-based cascaded method for reliable detection of objects and more specifically vessels, located far away from a surveillance camera. The cascaded method improves small object detection accuracy by additional processing of the obtained candidate regions in their original resolution. The additional processing includes another detection iteration and a sequence of detection verification steps. Experimental results on our real-world vessel evaluation dataset reveal that the cascaded method increases the recall rate and F1- measurement by 13% and 12%, respectively. Another benefit is that the method does not require an adopter to change the model and architecture of the applied network. As an additional contribution, we provide a labeled maritime dataset to open public access.</p

Učinci adheziva osjetljivih na tlak i kemijskih promotora na permeaciju fentanila kroz kožu štakora

Drug-in-adhesive patches (DIAPs) of fentanyl were formulated using various pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) and various chemical permeation enhancers (CPEs). The effects of the PSAs and CPEs on skin permeation of fentanyl from DIAPs were evaluated using modified jacketed Franz diffusion cells fitted with excised rat abdominal skin. It was demonstrated that permeation rate or steady state flux (Jss) of the drug through the excised rat skin was dependent on the viscosity and type of acrylic PSA as well as the type of CPE. Among different acrylic PSAs, Duro-Tak® 2054 and Duro-Tak® 2516 showed the highest Jss of 1.95 μg cm-2 h-1 and the lowest Jss of 1.43 μg cm-2 h-1, respectively. Among the various CPEs used, propylene glycol and polyethylene glycol 400 showed 1.61 and 1.18, the highest and lowest enhancement ratio (ER) on the skin permeation of fentanyl, respectively. Oleic acid and cetyl alcohol moderately increased the skin permeation of fentanyl. It was also shown that increasing the concentration of CPE led to reduction in adhesion property of PSA as measured by 180° peeling strength test. Moreover, it was found that the permeation rate increased as the fentanyl loading increased from 1 to 3%. The skin permeation rate of fentanyl did not increase significantly beyond 3% drug loading. It was concluded that PG as a CPE and cosolvent in 10% m/m with 3% fentanyl loading in Duro-Tak 2054 showed an effective monolithic DIAP for the development of a transdermal therapeutic system for fentanyl.Pripravljeni su transdermalni adhezivni flasteri fentanila (DIAPs) koristeći različite adhezive osjetljivih na tlak (PSAs) i kemijske promotore permeabilnosti (CPEs). Njihovi učinci na permeabilnost fentanila evaluirani su pomoću modificirane Franzove difuzijske ćelije s membranom od kože s abdomena štakora. Brzina permeabilnosti (Jss) ovisi o viskoznosti i vrsti akrilnih adheziva i o vrsti promotora. Najveća vrijednost Jss = 1,95 μg cm-2 h-1 postignuta je s Duro-Tak® 2054, a najmanja (Jss = 1,43 μg cm-2 h-1) s Duro-Tak® 2516. Među različitim promotorima propilen glikol i polietilen glikol 400 pokazali su najveći (1,61) i najmanji (1,18) omjer poboljšanja (ER) permeabilnosti. Oleinska kiselina i cetil alkohol umjereno su povećali permeabilnost fentanila. Za mjerenje adhezivnih svojstava upotrebljena je "metoda ljuštenja". Povećanje koncentracije CPE smanjilo je adhezivna svojstva PSA. Kada je udio fentanila u flasteru povišen s 1 na 3%, brzina permeabilnosti se povećala, dok daljnje povećanje udjela fentanila nije značajno utjecalo na brzinu. Pripravak s 10% propilen glikola i 3% fentanila u Duro-Tak 2054 pokazao se kao učinkoviti transdermalni terapijski sustav za fentanil

Cyclosporin A attenuating morphine tolerance through inhibiting NO/ERK signaling pathway in human glioblastoma cell line

Cyclosporin A (CsA) is known to have an immunosuppressive action. However, it is also attracting attention due to its effects on the nervous system, such as inhibiting the development and expression of morphine-induced tolerance and dependence through unknown mechanisms. It has been shown that CsA modulates the nitric oxide (NO) synthesis and extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK) activation, which are potentially involved in signaling pathways in morphine-induced tolerance in cellular models. Therefore, the current study was designed to evaluate the modulatory role of CsA on the MOR tolerance, by targeting the downstream signaling pathway of NO and ERK using an in vitro model. For this purpose, T98G cells were pretreated with CsA, calcineurin autoinhibitory peptide (CAIP), and NG-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) 30 min before 18 h exposure to MOR. Then, we analyzed the intracellular cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) levels and also the expression of phosphorylated ERK and nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) proteins. Our results showed that CsA (1 nM, 10 nM, and 100 nM) and CAIP (50 μM) have significantly reduced cAMP and nitrite levels as compared to MOR-treated (2.5 μM) T98G cells. This clearly revealed the attenuation of MOR tolerance by CsA. The expression of nNOS and p-ERK proteins were down-regulated when the T98G cells were pretreated with CsA (1 nM, 10 nM, and 100 nM), CAIP (50 μM), and L-NAME (0.1 mM) as compared to MOR. In conclusion, the CsA pretreatment had a modulatory role in MOR-induced tolerance, which was possibly mediated through NO/ERK signaling pathway

Effect of citalopram and sertraline on the expression of miRNA- 124, 132, and 16 and their protein targets in patients with depression

Objective(s): This study aimed to evaluate the effect of SSRIs on the expression of miRNAs and their protein targets.Materials and Methods: In a 100 day open-label study of citalopram (n=25) and sertraline (n=25), levels of miRNA 16, 132, and 124 and glucocorticoid receptor (GR), Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and serotonin transporter (SERT) protein expression were measured by QRT-PCR and western blot in healthy control (n=20), patients with depression at the baseline, and same patients after 100 days of treatment.Results: Expression levels of GR and BDNF proteins were lower in the depressed group before treatment as compared with the healthy group (P<0.0001). The SERT level was higher among the depressed group before treatment in comparison with the healthy group (P<0.0001). The level of GR and BDNF significantly increased, and SERT expression decreased after receiving sertraline (P<0.05). When the depressed group received citalopram, only SERT and GR were altered (P<0.05). Among the microRNAs’ expression investigated, mir-124 and mir-132 were higher, and mir-16 was lower among the depressed compared with the healthy group (P<0.0001). Individuals receiving citalopram only showed an increase in the expression of mir-16 while administration of sertraline led to a significant increase in the expression of mir-16 and a decrease in mir-124 and mir-132 (P<0.05).Conclusion: This elucidated the relationship between antidepressant treatment and the expression of different microRNA that control gene expression in various pathways involved in depressed patients.  Receiving SSRI can affect the level of these proteins and their relevant microRNAs

Optimization of open pit mines fleet using Simulation-based optimization method (Case study: SONGUN copper mine)

In open pit mines the loaders and hauls choice , allocation and dispatching of trucks is one of the most important and complicated operational processes. That’s optimization results in great thrifts. For the analysis of this type of examples, simulation is a powerful tool.One of the basic points in the topic of simulation models is the presentment of optimization. Simulation based optimization methods are often one objective. In this Thesis it has been objected to use the multi objective forms of these methods. The considered goals are minimizing of operational cost and maximizing of production. Meta heuristic algorithms which is chosen for this issue Multi-Objective-Particle-Swarm-Optimization (MOPSO). For simulation we have used Arena’s software and for optimization used MATLAB software. The results of proposal methods implementation on Sungun mine’s loading and hauling fleet, shows that with the administration of obtained scenarios it is possible to maximize the current production of the mine 2.5 times and to reduce the operational costs of production up to 23