ZnO:B back reflector with high haze and low absorption enhanced triple-junction thin film Si solar modules

AbstractWe present our development of a ZnO:B back reflector (BR) with high haze and low absorption for highly efficient triple-junction thin film Si solar modules over a large area (1.1×1.3m2). We try to maximize light trapping by the evaluation of the use of transparent conducting oxide (TCO) and BR for high efficiency. It was verified that the configuration of SnO2:F front TCO and ZnO:B BR shows better optical properties than typical configurations for light trapping due to its high transparency at the front and high haze at the back. In addition, we noticed that the absorption of the BR has a strong influence on the solar modules. We obtained a superior ZnO:B BR with high haze and low absorption by controlling the doping gas ratio (B2H6/DEZ). As the doping gas ratio of ZnO:B BR decreases, the haze increases due to a rougher surface morphology, and the absorption decreases due to reduced free carrier absorption. The solar modules with a ZnO:B BR in a lower doping gas ratio show relatively higher Pmax for the same i-μc-Si layer thickness. This results from an increased Isc due to higher haze and lower absorption. In addition, the ZnO:B BR with a low doping gas ratio was found to be effective in reducing the i-μc-Si layer thickness because there are more chances for trapping the light at the i-μc-Si layer. We could reduce the i-μc-Si layer thickness by about 28% for the equivalent Pmax level by lowering the doping gas ratio. We successfully applied the ZnO:B BR with high haze and low absorption into a triple-junction thin film silicon solar cell and achieved a new record, improving on our previous world record

Future development strategies for KODISA journals: overview of 2016 and strategic plans for the future

Purpose – With the rise of the fourth industrial revolution, it has converged with the existing industrial revolution to give shape to increased accessibility of knowledge and information. As a result, it has become easier for scholars to actively pursue and compile research in various fields. This current study aims to focus and assess the current standing of KODISA: the Journal of Distribution Science (JDS), International Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business (IJIDB), the East Asian Journal of Business Management (EAJBM), the Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business (JAFEB) in a rapidly evolving era. Novel strategies for creating the future vision of KODISA 2020 will also be examined. Research design, data, and methodology – The current research will analyze published journals of KODISA in order to offer a vision for the KODISA 2020 future. In part 1, this paper will observe the current address of the KODISA journal and its overview of past achievements. Next, part 2 will discuss the activities that will be needed for journals of KODISA, JDS, IJIDB, EAJBM, JAFEB to branch out internationally and significant journals will be statistically analyzed in part 3. The last part 4 will offer strategies for the continued growth of KODISA and visions for KODISA 2020. Results – Among the KODISA publications, IJIDB was second, JDS was 23rd (in economic publications of 54 journals), and EAJBM was 22nd (out of 79 publications in management field journals). This shows the high quality of the KODISA publication journals. According to 2016 publication analysis, JDS, IJIDB, etc. each had 157 publications, 15 publications, 16 publications, and 28 publications. In the case of JDS, it showed an increase of 14% compared to last year. Additionally, JAFEB showed a significant increase of 68%. This shows that compared to other journals, it had a higher rate of paper submission. IJIDB and EAJBM did not show any significant increases. In JDS, it showed many studies related to the distribution, management of distribution, and consumer behavior. In order to increase the status of the KODISA journal to a SCI status, many more international conferences will open to increase its international recognition levels. Second, the systematic functions of the journal will be developed further to increase its stability. Third, future graduate schools will open to foster future potential leaders in this field and build a platform for innovators and leaders. Conclusions – In KODISA, JDS was first published in 1999, and has been registered in SCOPUS February 2017. Other sister publications within the KODISA are preparing for SCOPUS registration as well. KODISA journals will prepare to be an innovative journal for 2020 and the future beyond

EST analysis of gene expression in early cleavage-stage sea urchin embryos

A set of 956 expressed sequence tags derived from 7-hour (mid-cleavage) sea urchin embryos was analyzed to assess biosynthetic functions and to illuminate the structure of the message population at this stage. About a quarter of the expressed sequence tags represented repetitive sequence transcripts typical of early embryos, or ribosomal and mitochondrial RNAs, while a majority of the remainder contained significant open reading frames. A total of 232 sequences, including 153 different proteins, produced significant matches when compared against GenBank. The majority of these identified sequences represented ‘housekeeping’ proteins, i.e., cytoskeletal proteins, metabolic enzymes, transporters and proteins involved in cell division. The most interesting finds were components of signaling systems and transcription factors not previously reported in early sea urchin embryos, including components of Notch and TGF signal transduction pathways. As expected from earlier kinetic analyses of the embryo mRNA populations, no very prevalent protein-coding species were encountered; the most highly represented such sequences were cDNAs encoding cyclins A and B. The frequency of occurrence of all sequences within the database was used to construct a sequence prevalence distribution. The result, confirming earlier mRNA population analyses, indicated that the poly(A) RNA of the early embryo consists mainly of a very complex set of low-copy-number transcripts

Genetic variation and population structure of spottybelly greenling (Hexagrammos agrammus) in Korean coasts analyzed by DNA markers emphasizing on microsatellites

Two nuclear microsatellite DNA loci along with partial sequences of mitochondrial DNA tRNAPRO-D-loop region were analyzed to assess the genetic diversity and population genetic structure of spottybelly greenling (Hexagrammos agrammus). A total of 85 individuals were investigated from two different locations at the East and the South coasts of Korea which are Imwonjin (IM) and Tongyeong (TN), respectively. In the analysis of genetic diversity, nucleotide diversities were low showing 0.01 whereas haplotype diversities were as high as 0.92 and 0.97 in IM and TN populations, respectively indicating population bottleneck after rapid growth of these populations. No significant genealogical branches or clusters were recognized on the neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree. Pairwise population statistics FST and the exact test of population differentiation from the analysis of microsatellite DNA loci demonstrated no significant genetic difference between two populations investigated in the Korean coasts. In addition, significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and heterozygote deficiencies were found from the microsatellite DNA loci. The results of the study will help to make a plan for fisheries management of the species

A High Precision Test Method And The Related Equipment For Smart Water Meters

We are now developing a smart water meter dedicated to smart water grid systems. The primary goal of our reseach is to make the smart water meters with higher precision compared with typical water meters. For instance, the range of the allowable measurement errors for the flow rate in the lower zone of the second level precision water meter is set to +-5% by the Korea Standard. However, with ours the range is decreased to +- 3% for the same condition. Therefore it is necessary to build a high precision test method and the related equipment for evaluating the performance of our developing water meters. Both the international standards, ISO-4063-3 and OIML-R049-2 specifications, define the performance tests that are intended to verify that water meters with electronic devices perform and functions as intended in a specified environment and under specified conditions.However, most of the test equipments in Korea does not satisfy completely both of the international standards. In addition, they opt to adopt volumetric measurement method instead of mass measurement method which typically induces a better result for the uncertainty in measurement. In this paper, we present a test method with the mass measurement system. Reference water flow will be measured as a mass by using the load cell. Each smart water meter sends the massured flow reguarly to the centralized system through Zigbee communication protocol. We expect that our proposed test method and equipment fully satisfies the Korea standard as well as both of the international standards

Impact of Toxocariasis in Patients with Unexplained Patchy Pulmonary Infiltrate in Korea

Toxocariasis is one of the causes of pulmonary eosinophilic infiltrate that is increasing in Korea. This study was designed to identify the prevalence of toxocara seropositivity in patients with unexplained pulmonary patchy infiltrate and to evaluate associated factors. We evaluated 102 patients with unexplained pulmonary patchy infiltrate on chest computed tomography (CT) scan. As a control set, 116 subjects with normal chest CT were also evaluated. History of allergic disease, drug use, parasitic disease and raw cow liver intake were taken. Blood eosinophil count and total IgE level were measured. Specific serum IgG antibody to Toxocara canis larval antigen and specific IgG antibodies to 4 other parasites were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In the infiltrate group, 66.7% subjects were toxocara seropositive whereas 22.4% of the control group were seropositive (p<0.001). In the infiltrate group, patients with a history of eating raw cow liver (odds ratio [OR], 7.8) and patients with eosinophilia (OR, 5.2) had a higher incidence of toxocara seropositivity. Thirty-five percent of toxocara seropositive patients with infiltrate exhibited migrating infiltrate and 48% had decreased infiltrate on the follow-up CT. We recommend that toxocara ELISA should be performed in patients with unexplained pulmonary patchy infiltrate, and that the eating of raw cow liver should be actively discouraged

Cases of ethical violation in research publications: through editorial decision making process

Purpose – To improve and strengthen existing publication and research ethics, KODISA has identified and presented various cases which have violated publication and research ethics and principles in recent years. The editorial office of KODISA has been providing and continues to provide advice and feedback on publication ethics to researchers during peer review and editorial decision making process. Providing advice and feedback on publication ethics will ensure researchers to have an opportunity to correct their mistakes or make appropriate decisions and avoid any violations in research ethics. The purpose of this paper is to identify different cases of ethical violation in research and inform and educate researchers to avoid any violations in publication and research ethics. Furthermore, this article will demonstrate how KODISA journals identify and penalize ethical violations and strengthens its publication ethics and practices. Research design, data and methodology – This paper examines different types of ethical violation in publication and research ethics. The paper identifies and analyzes all ethical violations in research and combines them into five general categories. Those five general types of ethical violations are thoroughly examined and discussed. Results – Ethical violations of research occur in various forms at regular intervals; in other words, unethical researchers tend to commit different types of ethical violations repeatedly at same time. The five categories of ethical violation in research are as follows: (1) Arbitrary changes or additions in author(s) happen frequently in thesis/dissertation related publications. (2) Self plagiarism, submitting same work or mixture of previous works with or without using proper citations, also occurs frequently, but the most common type of plagiarism is changing the statistical results and using them to present as the results of the empirical analysis; (3) Translation plagiarism, another ethical violation in publication, is difficult to detect but occurs frequently; (4) Fabrication of data or statistical analysis also occurs frequently. KODISA requires authors to submit the results of the empirical analysis of the paper (the output of the statistical program) to prevent this type of ethical violation; (5) Mashup or aggregator plagiarism, submitting a mix of several different works with or without proper citations without alterations, is very difficult to detect, and KODISA journals consider this type of plagiarism as the worst ethical violation. Conclusions – There are some individual cases of ethical violation in research and publication that could not be included in the five categories presented throughout the paper. KODISA and its editorial office should continue to develop, revise, and strengthen their publication ethics, to learn and share different ways to detect any ethical violations in research and publication, to train and educate its editorial members and researchers, and to analyze and share different cases of ethical violations with the scholarly community

Induction of IL-10-producing CD4(+)CD25(+ )T cells in animal model of collagen-induced arthritis by oral administration of type II collagen

Induction of oral tolerance has long been considered a promising approach to the treatment of chronic autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Oral administration of type II collagen (CII) has been proven to improve signs and symptoms in RA patients without troublesome toxicity. To investigate the mechanism of immune suppression mediated by orally administered antigen, we examined changes in serum IgG subtypes and T-cell proliferative responses to CII, and generation of IL-10-producing CD4(+)CD25(+ )T-cell subsets in an animal model of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). We found that joint inflammation in CIA mice peaked at 5 weeks after primary immunization with CII, which was significantly less in mice tolerized by repeated oral feeding of CII before CIA induction. Mice that had been fed with CII also exhibited increased serum IgG(1 )and decreased serum IgG(2a )as compared with nontolerized CIA animals. The T-cell proliferative response to CII was suppressed in lymph nodes of tolerized mice also. Production of IL-10 and of transforming growth factor-β from mononuclear lymphocytes was increased in the tolerized animals, and CD4(+ )T cells isolated from tolerized mice did not respond with induction of IFN-γ when stimulated in vitro with CII. We also observed greater induction of IL-10-producing CD4(+)CD25(+ )subsets among CII-stimulated splenic T cells from tolerized mice. These data suggest that when these IL-10-producing CD4(+)CD25(+ )T cells encounter CII antigen in affected joints they become activated to exert an anti-inflammatory effect