The Environmental Impact of Advanced Material Concepts for Luminescent Solar Concentrators

Sunlight that is incident on the front surface of a luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) is absorbed and subsequently re-emitted by luminescent materials. The resulting luminescence is transported to the edge of the LSC sheet and concentrated onto photovoltaic devices. This paper outlines the loss mechanisms that limit conversion efficiency of the LSC and highlights the role that advanced materials can play. Losses include nonunity fluorescence quantum yield (FQY), reabsorption losses, incomplete utilization of the solar spectrum, and escape cone losses. Long-term photostability is also discussed as it is essential for commercial feasibility of any solar technology. The main motivation for implementing an LSC is to replace the large area of expensive solar cells required in a standard flat-plate PV panel, with an inexpensive polymeric collector, thereby, reducing the cost of the module (in dollars per watt) and also of the solar power (in dollars per kilowatthour). A key advantage of LSC technology compared to other concentrating systems is that it can collect both direct and diffuse solar radiation. This means that tracking of the sun is not required—enhancing further potential cost reductions and making LSCs excellent candidates for building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV)—as well as making them the ideal PV technology for cloudier northern European climates. Similarly to electricity conversion, LSCs also have applications in daylighting (Hiramoto et al., 1991), thermal conversion, and hybrid thermal–photovoltaic systems that could generate electricity and extract the heat generated by the LSC plate (Xue et al., 2005)

Renewable Energy from the Sun And Recent Progress of Organic Photovoltaics

Solar energy can provide a clean, reliable, renewable source of electric power. However, the present increasing cost of silicon requires that we find a more efficient means of utilising available silicon resource

Technical Aspects Regarding the Preservation of Dry Onions in Different Storage Conditions

Research refers to the ability to maintain the quality of dry onions in different conditions of temperature, the three varieties used in experimentation (De Buzau, Daytona and Countach) being stored after proper preparation at ambient temperature (+20…+22°C), refrigerated (+10…+12°C) and cold conditions (+3…+5°C). Storage life, the level of weight (mass) and decay losses and evolution of some chemical components determined from the 9 variants led to the conclusion that the best results were obtained by De Buzau variety for storage under ambient conditions and Daytona variety for storage under refrigerated and cold conditions. Moreover large differences between varieties and their behavior depending on storage conditions require choosing resistant cultivars and optimum storage temperatures according to destination and period of marketing or consumption

One-to-One and One-to-Many Business Relationship Marketing: Toward a Theoretical Framework

Purpose. This work addresses mixed findings in relationship marketing literature regarding the importance of micro-level (interpersonal) relationships on firm outcome. MethodobgylApproach: The article leverages impression formation theory to advance a framework to understand one-to-one and one-to-many marketing relationships to better predict firm outcome. Findings: The authors suggest that 5 framework moderators—the type and consistency of the encounters, relationship age, purchase frequency, relationship interruptions, and two customer side characteristics (i.e., need to evaluate [NTE] and need for cognitive closure [NFCC] )—can qualify the relationship building process and impact the effectiveness of interpersonal and/or group relationships on firm outcome. Practical Implications: The framework suggests that (1) highly consistent sales team behaviors reduce the risk of losing business in case of a sales team member leaving; (2) low frequency purchases are better suited for one-to-many selling relationships; (3) temporarily suspending relationships by individual salespeople is more harmful than suspending relationships by sales teams; (4) involving the customer in the acquisition process facilitates team selling; and (5) a positive first impression is more important for high (vs. low) NFCC and high NTE customers. Originality/Value. The theoretical framework (1) distinguishes between individual-to-individual and individual-to-group relationships, (2) suggests a distinction between micro-level individual-to-individual and individual-to-group relationships and macro-level individual-to-firm relationships, (3) analyzes the impact of micro-level relationships under the influence of context-related and customer-related factors, and (4) provides managerially relevant guidelines for strategic sales planning

Processing fluency scale development for consumer research

Processing fluency or the subjective experience of ease that consumers can experience when processing information is a prominent construct in consumer research. Despite its prevalence, however, its measurement has been inconsistent. The present research addresses this methodological gap in literature by developing and testing a scale for assessing the subjective experience of processing fluency. This scale demonstrates strong evidence of convergent and discriminant validity, reliability, and nomological validity across different processing fluency manipulations and marketing contexts. Use of this scale will allow marketing practitioners and academicians to consistently measure a psychological state that is known to have ubiquitous effects on downstream consumer outcomes including trust, attitude, and choice. Researchers can administer this four-item scale by having participants indicate their agreement (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree) on whether a given marketing communication (e.g., ad copy) is (a) difficult to process, (b) difficult to read, (c) takes a long time to process, and (d) difficult to understand

Towards an Integrated Approach for Model Simulation, Property Extraction and Veri cation of P Systems

This paper presents an integrated approach for model simulation, property extraction and formal veri cation of P systems, illustrated on a tissue P system with active membranes solving the 3-colouring problem. The paper focuses on this problem and reports the invariants and the properties extracted and veri ed using a series of tools (Daikon, MeCoSim, Maple, Spin, ProB) and languages (P{Lingua, Promela, Event-B). Appropriate tools and integration plugins, which facilitate and even automate the steps involved in the aforementioned approach, have also been developed. The case study chosen is complex (it involves an exponential growth of the number of states through the use of membrane division rules) and the properties obtained are non-trivial.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2009–13192Junta de Andalucía P08–TIC–0420