Preparation and properties of ZnO-based nanostructured films with light trapping eff ects

In this paper, ZnO-based nanostructured films were prepared by hydrothermal method on ZnO seed layers obtained by sol-gel method and AZO transparent conductive glass. X RD, SEM, sheet resistance test, transmittance and haze spectra were used to characterize the structure, morphology, optoelectronic properties and light trapping abilities of the films. The effects of seed layer concentration and hydrothermal growth temperature on the characteristics of ZnO-based nanostructured fi lms were studied, and the prepared fi lms had light trapping eff ects and high total transmittance in the visible light region

Risk Assessment and Prediction of Heavy Metal Pollution in Groundwater and River Sediment: A Case Study of a Typical Agricultural Irrigation Area in Northeast China

The areas with typical municipal sewage discharge river and irrigation water function were selected as study sites in northeast China. The samples from groundwater and river sediment in this area were collected for the concentrations and forms of heavy metals (Cr(VI), Cd, As, and Pb) analysis. The risk assessment of heavy metal pollution was conducted based on single-factor pollution index (I) and Nemerow pollution index (NI). The results showed that only one groundwater sampling site reached a polluted level of heavy metals. There was a high potential ecological risk of Cd on the N21-2 sampling site in river sediment. The morphological analysis results of heavy metals in sediment showed that the release of heavy metals can be inferred as one of the main pollution sources of groundwater. In addition, the changes in the concentration and migration scope of As were predicted by using the Groundwater Modeling System (GMS). The predicted results showed that As will migrate downstream in the next decade, and the changing trend of As polluted areas was changed with As content districts because of some pump wells downstream to form groundwater depression cone, which made the solute transfer upstream

Additive effects of cherlerythrine chloride combination with erlotinib in human non-small cell lung cancer cells.

Several studies implicate that lung cancer progression is governed by the interaction between epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling and protein kinase C (PKC) pathways. Combined the targeting of EGFR and PKC may have an additive or synergistic effects in lung cancer treatment. The aim of this study is to explore the potential utility by inhibiting these two pathways with the combination of erlotinib and chelerythrine chloride in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines. The erlotinib-less sensitive cell lines SK-MES-1 and A549 were treated with erlotinib or chelerythrine by themselves or in combination with each other. The cell viability, clonogenic survival, cell migration, invasion, cell apoptosis effects and immunoblotting were accessed in vitro. Tumor growth was evaluated in vivo. There were additive effects of chelerythrine combined with erlotinib treatment in all NSCLC cell lines, resulting in a significant decrease in cell viability, clonogenicity, migratory and invasive capabilities as well as in the induction of apoptosis. Concordantly, the combined treatment caused a significant delay in tumor growth. The treatment effectively blocked EGFR signaling through decreasing phosphorylation of downstream targets such as STAT3, ERK1/2, p38 MAPK and Bad proteins. Our study supports the functional interaction between the EGFR and PKC pathways in lung cancer and provides a clinically exploitable strategy for erlotinib-less sensitive non-small cell lung cancer patients

A Fast Linearly Wavelength Step-Swept Light Source Based on Recirculating Frequency Shifter and Its Application to FBG Sensor Interrogation

A wavelength step-swept light source (WSSL) using a recirculating frequency shifter loop (RFSL) based on a single-side-band (SSB) modulator is proposed, in order to achieve a linear and fast wavelength-sweeping. The swept step can be tuned from 1.2 pm to 128 pm by adjusting a precise and stable radio frequency (RF) signal that is applied to the SSB modulator. The swept rate can be tuned up to 99 kHz in a range of over 5.12 nm. Wavelength-to-time mapping is used to measure static strain-induced or temperature-induced shifting of the reflected central wavelength of a fiber Bragg grating (FBG). Because of the high linearity of the light source, the interrogation linearity of the strain and the temperature are as high as 0.99944 and 0.99946, respectively. When a dynamic periodic strain applied to FBG sensor, the dynamic performance of the FBG sensor is successfully recorded in the time domain and its power spectral density of a fast Fourier transform (FFT) is calculated. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the power spectral density is over 40 dB for a 100 Hz dynamic strain and the calculated sensitivity is 0.048 με/Hz1/2. A sharp change in the strain frequency from 100 Hz to 500 Hz is captured in real time

Flexible Tunable Nyquist Pulse Generation Using Recirculating Frequency Shift Loop

A novel method of optical Nyquist pulse generation based on recirculating frequency shift loop (RFSL) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In this article, a large number of flat phase-locked comb lines output from RFSL are used to synthesize Nyquist pulse, which has ultra-narrow and flexible tunable pulse width. It is the first time to theoretically analyze the condition of Nyquist pulse generation by RFSL in detail. In the experiment, the number of flat spectral lines is continuously tuned in the range of 10 to 40 corresponding to the pulse width of 8.9 ps to 2.4 ps. Meanwhile, Nyquist pulses with tunable repetition rate from 7.5 GHz to 15 GHz are obtained experimentally