Forest Resources Digital Information System

Forestry Images, the digitized documented forest health image archive, was developed with the aim to gather, create, maintain, and distribute digital information as tools to enhance and complement information exchange and educational activities. The Forestry Images System exists under the umbrella of Bugwood Network (Bargeron, Douce, & Moorhead, 2000). The increased volume of images and its usage statistics required major changes to enhance the system access, better content management, and security. The enhanced system is standard compliant based on recommendations from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the U.S. government Section 508

Kinetics of creation and of thermal annealing of light-induced defects in microcrystalline silicon solar cells

Single-junction microcrystalline silicon (mu c-Si:H) solar cells of selected i-layer crystalline volume fractions were light soaked (AM1.5, 1000 h at 50 degrees C) and subsequently annealed at increasing temperatures. The variations of subbandgap absorption during light soaking and during thermal annealing were monitored by Fourier transform photocurrent spectroscopy. The kinetics were shown to follow stretched exponential functions over long times such as 1000 h. The effective time constants appearing in the stretched exponential function decrease with decreasing crystalline volume fraction as well with increasing annealing temperature. Their Arrhenius-like dependence on temperature is characterized by a unique value of the activation energy. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the configuration of the solar cells (p-i-n or n-i-p) does not influence the degradation kinetics, as long as the average crystallinity of the intrinsic layer is of comparable value. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics

Metabolic control analysis is helpful for informed genetic manipulation of oilseed rape (Brassica napus) to increase seed oil content

Top–down control analysis (TDCA) is a useful tool for quantifying constraints on metabolic pathways that might be overcome by biotechnological approaches. Previous studies on lipid accumulation in oilseed rape have suggested that diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT), which catalyses the final step in seed oil biosynthesis, might be an effective target for enhancing seed oil content. Here, increased seed oil content, increased DGAT activity, and reduced substrate:product ratio are demonstrated, as well as reduced flux control by complex lipid assembly, as determined by TDCA in Brassica napus (canola) lines which overexpress the gene encoding type-1 DGAT. Lines overexpressing DGAT1 also exhibited considerably enhanced seed oil content under drought conditions. These results support the use of TDCA in guiding the rational selection of molecular targets for oilseed modification. The most effective lines had a seed oil increase of 14%. Moreover, overexpression of DGAT1 under drought conditions reduced this environmental penalty on seed oil content

Controlled nucleation of thin microcrystalline layers for the recombination junction in a-Si stacked cells

In high-efficiency a-Si : H based stacked cells, at least one of the two layers that form the internal n/p junction has preferentially to be microcrystalline so as to obtain sufficient recombination at the junction [1–6]. The crucial point is the nucleation of a very thin μc-Si : H layer on an amorphous (i-layer) substrate [2, 4]. In this study, fast nucleation is induced through the treatment of the amorphous substrate by a CO2 plasma. The resulting n-layers with a high crystalline fraction were, however, found to reduce the Voc when incorporated in tandem cells. The reduction of the Voc could be restored only by a precise control of the crystalline fraction of the n-layer. As a technologically more feasible alternative, we propose a new, combined n-layer, consisting of a first amorphous layer for a high Voc, and a second microcrystalline layer, induced by CO2 treatment, for a sufficient recombination at the n/p junction. Resulting tandem cells show no Voc losses compared to two standard single cells, and an efficient recombination of the carriers at the internal junction as proved by the low series resistance (15 Ωcm2) and the high FF ( 75%) of the stacked cells

Submicron and Nanometer Structures Technology and Research

Contains reports on twenty research projects and a list of publications.Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Contract N00019-92-K-0021Joint Services Electronics Program Contract DAAL03-92-C-0001National Science Foundation Grant ECS 90-16437U.S. Army Research Office Grant DAAL03-92-G-0291IBM CorporationU.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research Grant F49620-92-J-0064National Science Foundation Grant DMR 87-19217National Science Foundation Grant DMR 90-22933Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Consortium for Superconducting ElectronicsNational Aeronautics and Space Administration Contract NAS8-36748National Aeronautics and Space Administration Grant NAGW-200

Nanostructures Technology, Research, and Applications

Contains reports on twenty research projects and a list of publications.Joint Services Electronics Program Contract DAAL03-92-C-0001Semiconductor Research Corporation Contract 94-MJ-550U.S. Army Research Office Grant DAAL03-92-G-0291Advanced Research Projects Agency/Naval Air Systems Command Contract N00019-92-K-0021National Science Foundation Grant ECS 90-16437National Science Foundation Grant ECS 90-16737IBM Corporation Contract 1622U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research Grant F-49-62-92-J-0064National Science Foundation Grant DMR 87-19217National Science Foundation Grant DMR 90-22933National Aeronautics and Space Administration Contract NAS8-3674

Risk of secondhand smoke exposure and severity of COVID-19 infection: multicenter case–control study

IntroductionExposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) is an established causal risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and chronic lung disease. Numerous studies have evaluated the role of tobacco in COVID-19 infection, severity, and mortality but missed the opportunity to assess the role of SHS. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine whether SHS is an independent risk factor for COVID-19 infection, severity, mortality, and other co-morbidities.MethodologyMulticentric case–control study was conducted across six states in India. Severe COVID-19 patients were chosen as our study cases, and mild and moderate COVID-19 as control were evaluated for exposure to SHS. The sample size was calculated using Epi-info version 7. A neighborhood-matching technique was utilized to address ecological variability and enhance comparability between cases and controls, considering age and sex as additional matching criteria. The binary logistic regression model was used to measure the association, and the results were presented using an adjusted odds ratio. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 24 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).ResultsA total of 672 cases of severe COVID-19 and 681 controls of mild and moderate COVID-19 were recruited in this study. The adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for SHS exposure at home was 3.03 (CI 95%: 2.29–4.02) compared to mild/moderate COVID-19, while SHS exposure at the workplace had odds of 2.19 (CI 95%: 1.43–3.35). Other factors significantly related to the severity of COVID-19 were a history of COVID-19 vaccination before illness, body mass index (BMI), and attached kitchen at home.DiscussionThe results of this study suggest that cumulative exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke is an independent risk factor for severe COVID-19 illness. More studies with the use of biomarkers and quantification of SHS exposure in the future are needed