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Background Influenza-related bacterial pneumonia is a leading complication of influenza infection. However, the differences in the incidence rates and risk factors associated with concomitant viral/bacterial pneumonia (CP) and secondary bacterial pneumonia following influenza (SP) remain unclear. This study aimed to clarify the incidence rates of CP and SP following seasonal influenza and identify factors associated with their development. Methods This retrospective cohort study was conducted using the JMDC Claims Database, a health insurance claims database in Japan. All patients aged Results Among the 10 473 014 individuals registered in the database, 1 341 355 patients with influenza were analyzed. The average age at diagnosis (SD) was 26.6 (18.6) years. There were 2901 (0.22%) and 1262 (0.09%) patients who developed CP and SP, respectively. Age 65–74 years, asthma, chronic bronchitis/emphysema, cardiovascular disease, renal disease, malignant tumor, and immunosuppression were significant risk factors for both CP and SP, whereas cerebrovascular disease, neurological disease, liver disease, and diabetes were risk factors specific to CP development. Conclusions The results determined the incidence rates of CP and SP and identified their risk factors, such as older age and comorbidities.

The development of photovoltaics (PV)-powered vehicles are expected to contribute to reduce CO2 emission of vehicles and create a clean energy society. This paper presents the impact of high-efficiency solar cell modules on reduction in CO2 emission, charging cost reduction for electric vehicles, and reducing storage capacity of PV-powered electric vehicles. In this paper, the effects of solar cell module efficiency upon driving distance of PV-powered vehicles are also shown. Especially, the potential of Si tandem solar cells for PV-powered vehicle applications is discussed. This paper presents that the III-V/Si 3-junction solar cell modules with an efficiency of more than 37% have the potential of longer driving distance of 30 km/day average and more than 50 km/day on a clear day compared to an average 16 km/day driving by vehicles powered by 20% efficiency Si solar cell modules.

The photovoltaic performance of CdTe solar cells is mainly limited by low doping and short minority carrier lifetime. Group-V element doping and Se-alloying have a significant impact on tuning these fundamental CdTe properties. In this paper, we report the growth of p-type As-doped, Cd-rich CdTe1−xSex single crystals using metallic Cd as the solvent in the traveling-heater method. The structural and electrical properties of CdTe1−xSex are examined for different Se concentrations. CdTe1−xSex single crystals (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) with zincblende structure indicate homogeneous composition. The 1017 cm−3 As-doping activation efficiency can be maintained at close to 50% for x ≤ 0.2. Se alloying leads to bulk minority carrier lifetime exceeding 30 ns for samples doped near 1017 cm−3. These results help us to overcome the current roadblocks in device performance.

Tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastica is a rare benign condition in which multiple cartilaginous or bony submucosal nodules project into the trachea or bronchi. A 71-year-old man complained of cough for 3 months. Computed tomography scanning revealed a calcified tracheal tumor near the tracheal bifurcation. Pulmonary function testing indicated airflow limitation, and bronchoscopic examination confirmed a solitary rigid tumor. Bronchoscopic resection was performed under general anesthesia, and the tumor was detached by cauterizing its stem with high-frequency coagulation. The tumor was pathologically indicative of tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastica. After surgery, the clinical signs of cough and dyspnea resolved and pulmonary function normalized.

Hydrogen, a clean and renewable energy source, is a promising substitute for fossil fuels. Electricity-driven water electrolysis is an attractive pathway for clean hydrogen production. Accordingly, the development of electrolysis cells has drawn researchers’ attention to capital costs related to noble catalyst reduction and membrane degradation by the contaminations. In the literature, polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs) have been studied on single cations contamination. In this study, we investigated the performance of a PEM on monovalent and divalent cation contamination by feed water. Artificial river water, called soft water, was used to analyze the effect of impurities on the PEM. The results demonstrated that the operating voltage drastically increased and induced cell failure with increasing Mg2+ and Ca2+ concentrations; however, it did not increase for Na+ and K+ after increase in voltage. Therefore, divalent cations have a stronger affinity than monovalent cations to degrade PEM and should be effectively excluded from the feed water.

Background Detailed differences in clinical information between severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pneumonia (CP), which is the main phenotype of SARS-CoV-2 disease, and influenza pneumonia (IP) are still unclear. Methods A prospective, multicenter cohort study was conducted by including patients with CP who were hospitalized between January and June 2020 and a retrospective cohort of patients with IP hospitalized from 2009 to 2020. We compared the clinical presentations and studied the prognostic factors of CP and IP. Results Compared with the IP group (n = 66), in the multivariate analysis, the CP group (n = 362) had a lower percentage of patients with underlying asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (P < .01), lower neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (P < .01), lower systolic blood pressure (P < .01), higher diastolic blood pressure (P < .01), lower aspartate aminotransferase level (P < .05), higher serum sodium level (P < .05), and more frequent multilobar infiltrates (P < .05). The diagnostic scoring system based on these findings showed excellent differentiation between CP and IP (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.889). Moreover, the prognostic predictors were different between CP and IP. Conclusions Comprehensive differences between CP and IP were revealed, highlighting the need for early differentiation between these 2 pneumonias in clinical settings.

We report the case of a 64-year-old man with advanced small-cell lung cancer who developed fulminant amoebic colitis during cytotoxic chemotherapy. During the first cycle of carboplatin/etoposide treatment, febrile neutropenia and grade 4 neutropenia developed. Because diarrhea, abdominal pain, and bloody stool were observed, abdominal computed tomography was performed, showing intussusception, and surgery was performed. Histopathology of the colon revealed gastrointestinal necrosis and perforation due to Entamoeba histolytica infection. Amoebiasis improved after treatment with metronidazole and paromomycin. The second cycle of carboplatin/etoposide with dose reduction was completed, resulting in a partial response to small-cell lung cancer. The results of this case suggest that paromomycin is an additional option for amoebiasis during cytotoxic chemotherapy, and persistent diarrhea during cytotoxic chemotherapy should alert clinicians to consider the development of amoebiasis. Funding declaration: None Conflict of Interests: None Consent: Written informed consent was obtained from the parents of the patient for the publication of this report and accompanying images

Thermoelectrics (TEs) are an important class of technologies for harvesting electric power directly from heat sources. To design high performace TE materials, valleytronics has great theoretical potential to maximize a dimensionless figure of merit ZT but has not yet been demonstrated experimentally. Pseudocubic structure approach based on valleytronics paves a new path to manipulate valley degeneracy and anisotoropy with low thermal conductivity caused by short-range lattice distortion. Here, we report a record high ZT = 1.6 around 800 K, realized in totally enviromentally benign Na-doped Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) single crystal. The exceptional performance comes from a high power factor while maintaining intrinsically low thermal conductivity. The results demonstrate that valleytronics is a new strategy and direction in the TE field, which takes advantage of simple material nature tuning without complex techniques.

Power to gas (P2G) process chains have tremendous potential to enhance energy systems because of the capability of solar energy to convert solar radiation into electrical energy as well as the increasing use of specific gases as a means to store the resulting energy. Utilizing sunlight, photovoltaic systems are capable of producing useful gases such as hydrogen (H2) and methane (CH4). These gases are utilized in gas grids, transportation, and heavy industry. In employing a sunlight-derived gas, H2 production, by water disbanding, needs to be cost-effective with tremendous adaptability. New powerful solar to gas conversion system modules have been successfully carried out in the University of Miyazaki, Japan. These systems contain DC/DC converters and electrolyzer sets linked in parallel with efficient three concentrator photovoltaics (CPV). The performance of the solar to methane conversion process and power consumption analysis will be the focus of the current research. Efficiencies of 97.6% of CO2 to CH4 conversion and 13.8% for solar to methane on a clear sunny day were obtained by utilizing highly efficient CPV modules connected with multiple converters, electrochemical cells, and reactors fixed with Ni-based catalysts.

The outdoor field test of the 4-terminal III-V on Si tandem photovoltaic module (specifically, InGaP/GaAs on Si) was investigated and performance model, considering spectrum change affected by fluctuation of atmospheric parameters, was developed and validated. The 4-terminal III-V on Si tandem photovoltaic module had about 40 % advantage in seasonal performance loss compared with standard InGaP/GaAs/InGaAs 2-terminal tandem photovoltaic module. This advantage is expanded in (subarctic zone) < (temperate zone) < (subtropical zone).

We herein report the case of a sixty-four-year-old woman with stage IV lung adenocarcinoma with thymoma. The adenocarcinoma showed 95% tumor proportion scores of PD-L1 (Programmed death-ligand 1) expression without driver mutations. She was treated with pembrolizumab as 1st-line chemotherapy. Creatine kinase elevation was observed on the 15th day, and fatal myocarditis developed on the 20th day despite steroid therapy. The autopsy showed lymphocyte-infiltrated cardiac muscle, and pembrolizumab-induced myocarditis was diagnosed. Our case indicates that lung cancer combined with thymoma should alert clinicians to monitor the early onset of myocarditis in patients on immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy.

Because semiconductors absorb wavelengths dependent on the light absorption coefficient, photovoltaic (PV) energy output is affected by the solar spectrum. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the solar spectrum for highly accurate PV output estimation. Bird&rsquo, s model has been used as a general spectral model. However, atmospheric parameters such as aerosol optical depth and precipitable water have a constant value in the model that only applies to clear days. In this study, atmospheric parameters were extracted using the Bird&rsquo, s spectrum model from the measured global spectrum and the seasonal fluctuation of atmospheric parameters was examined. We propose an overcast spectrum model and calculate the all-weather solar spectrum from clear to overcast sky through linear combination. Three types of PV modules (fixed Si, two-axis tracking Si, and fixed InGaP/GaAs/InGaAs triple-junction solar cells) were installed at the University of Miyazaki. The estimated performance ratio (PR), which takes into account incident angle and spectral variations, was consistent with the measured PR. Finally, the energy yield of various PVs installed across Japan was successfully estimated.

The standardization of VIPV (Vehicle-integrated photovoltaic) has been driven by the international discussion among scientists and engineers, from photovoltaic research, photovoltaic industries, automobile and other industries, and testing laboratories. Since the VIPV is not flat and fixed installation, as well as a wide variety of designs, the knowledge of CPV (Concentrator Photovoltaic) technology, has been useful for developing testing technologies. This paper took two examples in the performance testing and the test for the tolerance for the partial/dynamic shading, utilizing various techniques exclusively used in CPV technologies.

The performance of CPV is sensitive to the spectrum change. Several previous works have been published on the sensitivity of multi-junction cells to airmass variations as well as works on band gap tuning and optimization of multi-junction stacks under concentrated radiation in various locations. Such a variety of atmospheric conditions, airmass as well as climate (quality of direct sunlight) are dynamic and cannot be controlled by the product design. All we can do is to customize the design by locations (not capable of dynamic variation) or inventing a robust device configuration against a dynamic change of atmospheric conditions (also effective to regional variation). Enhancing a luminescent coupling is useful to suppress the spectrum mismatching loss inherent to outdoor CPV installation. The configuration of the solar cell with 100 % of the recycling of the surplus photon energy for compensating spectrum mismatching is called an SMJ solar cell (super-multi-junction solar cell). The advantage of the SMJ solar cells in non-concentrating fixed sloped angle installation was intensively analyzed in the previous works. However, that of CPV was only investigated under the combination of the worst-case atmospheric parameter distributions, and not under the realistic spectrum variations, so that the calculation result was too extreme. This paper intended to fill the missing stone, by updating a previous result on CPV modeled under the combination of the worst-case variations of atmospheric conditions in the worst locations for CPV, by the realistic fluctuation pattern of meteorological parameters and climate using the intensive analysis that was done to the non-concentration installation (fixed installation). The SMJ was also confirmed valid to CPV under the dynamic fluctuation of the direct solar resources. Different from the non-concentrating operation, the normal CPV was found raising annual average outdoor efficiency under realistic atmospheric conditions simulated by the regional states in Miyazaki, Japan, up to six-junctions. This analysis also implies the bandgap design guideline for the robustness of the spectrum variation, trying to place the bandgap energy of the some of the sub-cells close to the water-absorption band (1.3 eV, 1.1 eV, and 0.89 eV).

The highest efficiency solar cell won in the efficiency race does not always give the most excellent annual energy yield in the real world solar condition that the spectrum is ever-changing. The study of the radiative coupling of the concentrator solar cells implied that the efficiency could increase by the recycle of the radiative recombination generated by the surplus current in upper junction. Such configuration of the multi-junction cells is often called by a super-multi-junction cell. We expanded it to non-concentrating installation. It was shown that this super-multi-junction cell configuration was found robust and can keep almost the same to the maximum potential efficiency (50 % in realistic spectrum fluctuation) up to 10 junctions by a Monte Carlo method. The super-multi-junction cell is also robust of the bandgap engineering of each junction. Therefore, the future multi-junction may not be needed to tune the bandgap for matching the standard solar spectrum, as well as relying upon artificial technologies like ELO, wafer-bonding, mechanical-stacking, and reverse-growth, but merely uses up-right and lattice-matching growth technologies. Although we have two challenging techniques; one is the optical cap layer that may be the directional photon coupling layer in the application of the photonics technologies, and another is the high-quality epitaxial growth with almost 100 % of the radiative efficiency.

The chalcopyrite Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) alloy system has received strong interest in recent years because of its potential for the development of high efficiency and low cost solar cells. The bandgap energy can be varied between 0.9 and 1.68 eV by composition ratio of In and Ga and the absorption coefficient is very high of abobe 105 cm-1. In our previous work1, I-III-VI2 chalcopyrite compound Cu(In0.2, Ga0.8)Se2 (CIGS) single crystal was successfully grown by traveling heater method (THM). The powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern showed preferred orientations of (112), (220) and (312) planes, confirming the chalcopyrite structure. In Raman spectra, the A1 mode peaks expected for CIGS were observed, and no secondary phases were observed. The full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the X-ray rocking curve (XRC) for the (112) oriented CIGS single crystal is 103 arcsec. The good-quality single-phase CIGS single crystal can be obtained1). In this work, Ga-rich composition ratio CIGS single crystals could be also successfully grown by THM. At the ratio of Ga / (Ga + In) > 0.3, the CIGS changed from n-type conduction to p-type conduction. It was assumed that Se vacancies are reduced with increasing Ga ratio from the results of Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. 1)Nagaoka, et al., Renewable Energy 2015, 79, 127-130.

The radiation received by solar cells within photovoltaic modules is lower than that arriving at the module surface. One of the causes of this energy loss is soiling of the module surface. Therefore, the influence of dust adhesion on photovoltaic modules must be studied. In this study, we prepared two tracker systems: a new system and a typical system. During the night, the former can switch to a downward-facing standby state, while the latter assumes an upward-facing standby state. The soiling on the polymethylmethacrylate and glass set on the tracker systems with both standby states was evaluated for 20 months in Miyazaki, Japan. By adopting the tracker system with the downward-facing standby state, a direct transmittance that was more-than-5% higher than before was consistently obtained at 500 nm in both cases with polymethylmethacrylate and glass.

It is well known that CPV is sensitive to the spectrum change, and its high-performance is often discouraged by the spectrum mismatching loss by the seasonal change of the atmospheric parameters. We found multiple methods could improve the robustness to the spectrum sensitivity, including enhancing luminescence coupling and fine-tuning to the bottom-bandgap matched to local atmospheric conditions (water absorption).It is well known that CPV is sensitive to the spectrum change, and its high-performance is often discouraged by the spectrum mismatching loss by the seasonal change of the atmospheric parameters. We found multiple methods could improve the robustness to the spectrum sensitivity, including enhancing luminescence coupling and fine-tuning to the bottom-bandgap matched to local atmospheric conditions (water absorption).

CPV incorporates a wide variety of technologies and options. The application of these technologies, however, is not limited to CPV only. The basic approach of the standardization for CPV is thus expanding the scope to a broader range of technologies. The knowledge gained through our activities is contributing to standardizations in PV technologies like, e.g. standards for trackers. In this regard, the standardization activities for CPV is also moving to new fields of applications.

The measurement of the atmospheric parameters by fitting to the measured spectrum was used to analyze the uncertainty of the energy generation of CPV. It was found the fluctuation of the atmospheric parameters substantially impact to the energy yield of multi-junction cells. The calculation considering the variation of atmospheric parameters showed a dramatic decline of the annual energy yield from the cells with more than five junctions. Optimized multijunction solar cells using luminescent coupling for an adjuster of the spectrum mismatching was proposed and analyzed. The top and the bottom junctions have lower bandgap for buffering to the mismatching and collecting a full range of the sunlight by robust energy conversion, and the annual energy substantially increases even by five or six junctions. The advanced modeling of the multi-junction cells considering the sensitivity of the atmospheric parameters and the degree of luminescent coupling is useful to the accurate prediction of the solar power in the smart control to the car-roof PV.

Silicon oxide thin films have been formed by use of the reaction between spin-coated silicone oil and ozone gas at atmospheric pressure and low temperature (250°C). Films formed at this temperature contained Si–OH bonds, owing to inadequate dehydration. To remove the Si–OH bonds at low temperature, the sample was dipped in ethanol at room temperature for 15 min then annealed on a hot plate at 250°C in methanol gas for 30 min. This treatment effectively dissociated the Si–OH bonds. It is believed the Si–OH bonds are replaced by Si-OCH3 bonds during the alcohol-assisted annealing. The leakage current of the metal-oxide-semiconductor after alcohol-assisted annealing was improved and the hysteresis width was reduced. This indicated that the number of trap sites owing to Si–OH bonds was reduced.

The combination of group-V element doping and Cd-rich composition is the most promising current strategy for maximizing p-type doping while preserving long lifetime. In this study, we carefully measure the equilibrium p-type doping limit for As-doped Cd-rich CdTe single crystals and demonstrate a doping limit in the low 1017 cm−3 range upon slow cooling. We present evidence for self-compensation with rapidly decreasing doping efficiency per added As above 5 × 1016 cm−3, yet we also demonstrate CdTe with >1017 cm−3 hole concentration and bulk lifetime >30 ns. Such crystals allow As-doped CdTe photovoltaic devices with open-circuit voltage exceeding 900 mV.

HCPV uses trackers, but their cost and reliability have raised problems. These problems may be solved by substantially increasing acceptance angle and mechanical tolerance. For a demonstration of the possibility of such substantial improvement, a 30 minutes intermittent tracking in high concentration applications was examined. To allow for 30 minutes intermittent tracking, both advanced optics and an advanced tracking control were investigated. For advanced optics, a 100 x refractive and dielectric concentrator was designed. It had about plus or minus 5° of acceptance angle. For advanced tracking control, a feed-forward control with a linear error correction was investigated. With combining both optimizations, it was shown that 30 minutes intermittent tracking was validated in outdoor experiments even for an as high as 100 x concentration.

We estimated the annual mean conversion efficiency of partially static concentrator (PSC) module. The PSC module consistes of static concentrator, small III-V top solar cell and large Si bottom solar cell. The large Si bottom solar cell absorbes the solar power that is not collected by the III-V top soler cell. The mean optical efficiency decreased with the increase of concentration ratio. The decreasing ratio of mean optical efficiency between 1X to 4X was 49.9%. By using PSC module structure, it was possible to boost the annually mean conversion efficiency. The decreasing ratio of annually mean conversion efficiency between 1X to 4X was 21.5%. The acceptance angle of conversion efficiency was larger than that of optical efficiency. The PSC module structure also improved acceptance angle of the conversion efficiency.

We propose a theoretical framework for analyzing the energy yields of partial concentrators. A partial concentrator uses a concentrator cell to absorb the principal defracted or reflected light rays from its concentrator optics and a backplane cell to absorbs the diffused or defocused light. This concept can be applied to the concentrator system when accurate sun-tracking is not available, such as on a vehicle. This analysis framework provides a simplified way to describe the uncertainties of solar incidences dealt by partial concentrator. This help identified a clearer design criteria of partial concentrator in order to outperform the flat-panel PV or conventional CPV.

III-V on Si cell is one of the most promising candidates of the low-cost and high-efficiency solar cell beyond the limit of Si cells. However, it is likely that the cost of III-V cell will keep greater than that of Si cells. The partial concentrator technology was invented to concentrate the sunlight onto smaller III-V cells on the Si cell with the increased acceptance angle for static concentrator operation. The partial concentrator allows on-axis optical loss but expands the apparent acceptance angle often beyond the thermodynamic limit. The spilled light will be saved and collected by the bottom Si cell. It is not just placing the Si cell around the concentrated III-V cell, but its design philosophy is “partially” collecting the sunlight to the III-V cell to expand the acceptance. Depending on the values of cost parameters, the cost of the partial CPV module becomes minimum at 4 x – 10 x of concentration onto the top III-V cell, meaning that the area of expensive III-V cell can be saved to 1/4 – 1/10. ...

To compete with the flat-plate crystalline Silicon cell module, III-V on Si structure is developed. However, it is clear that the situation of the higher cost of III-V cell relative to the Silicon cell will be unchanged. Then, it is preferred concentrating III-V cell for further savings. The partial concentrator is expanding the acceptance angle despite the higher concentration ratio. It is achieved by better performance balance of on-axis and high incidence angle. The new and generalized design method of the partial concentrator was developed. The profile function was constructed by selected Zernike’s polynomial considering rotational symmetry. The full conditions of the calculation including the initial value and the radial and azimuthal degree of the function were examined. It was found that the recommended radial and azimuthal degree were 12 and 12.

Not all sunlight irradiated on the surface of a photovoltaic (PV) module can reach the cells in the PV module. This loss reduces the conversion efficiency of the PV module. The main factors of this loss are the reflection and soiling on the surface of the PV module. With this, it is effective to have both antireflection and antisoiling effects on the surface of PV modules. In this study, the antireflection and antisoiling effects along with the long-term reliability of the silica-based layer easily coated on PV modules were assessed. A silica-based layer with a controlled thickness and refractive index was coated on the surface of a Cu(In,Ga)Se2 PV array. The array was exposed outdoors to assess its effects and reliability. As a result of the coating, the output of the PV array increased by 3.9%. The environment of the test site was relatively clean and the increase was considered to be a result of the antireflection effect. Moreover, it was observed that the effect of the coating was maintained without deterioration after 3.5 years. The coating was also applied to a silicon PV module and an effect similar to that of the CIGS PV module was observed in the silicon PV module.