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A direct-drive PV pump system based on phase change heat storage is proposed to address the current building energy consumption problem in heating/cooling. The system can solve the problems of unstable solar energy, high battery cost, and short battery service life. Taking a 45m 2 office in Shanghai as the research object, the annual dynamic simulation model of the system is built through TSNSYS. The linear weighted evaluation function method is used for multi-objective optimization analysis of system performance and cost. The results show that the selection scheme with a PV area of 26 m2, a phase change volume of 0.14 m3, and a valley electricity storage ratio of 1 has the best-combined performance and cost of the system.

Background and purpose There is a lack of a reliable outcome prediction model for patients evaluating the feasibility of postoperative adjuvant transarterial chemoembolization (PA-TACE) therapy. Our goal was to develop an easy-to-use tool specifically for these patients. Methods From January 2013 to June 2017, patients with liver cancer from the Liver Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University received postoperative adjuvant Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) therapy after liver cancer resection. A Cox’s proportional hazards model was established for these patients, followed by internal validation (enhanced bootstrap resampling technique) to further evaluate the predictive performance and discriminance, and compare with other predictive models. The prognostic factors considered included tumour number, maximum tumor diameter, Edmondson-Steiner (ES) grade, Microvascular invasion (MVI) grade, Ki67, age, sex, hepatitis B surface antigen, cirrhosis, Alpha-fetoprotein(AFP), Albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) grade, Child-pugh grade, body mass inex (BMI), Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), Platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR). Results The end point of the study was overall survival. The median overall survival was 31.8 (95%CI: 30.0-33.6 ) months, with 1-year, 2-year and 3-year survival rates being 96.3%, 84.0% and 75.3%, respectively. Tumour number, MVI grade, and BMI was incorporated into the model, which had good differentiation and accuracy. Internal validation (enhanced bootstrap ) suggested that Harrell’s C statistic is 0.72 (a measure of discrimination, with higher values indicating better discrimination). The model consistently outperforms other currently available models. Conclusions This model may be an easy-to-use tool for screening patients suitable for PA-TACE treatment and guiding the selection of clinical protocols. But further research and external validation are required.

Heat pump water heater can economize dramatic amounts of energy in domestic application. To make full use of hybrid heat source, a solar-air dual series source heat pump water heater (SA-HPWH) is proposed. The refrigerant can get vaporized in two types of evaporators to adjust to variable working conditions. Based on distributed modeling approach, the dynamic model of SA-HPWH system is established. The operational characteristics of the SA-HPWH system have been discussed under different working conditions. The results show that the SA-HPWH system is able to work effectively under low solar irradiation and ambient temperature. The average COP rises from 2.23 to 2.63 with Tair rising from 10 °C to 20 °C. The rise in solar irradiation can lift the evaporating capacity of collector evaporator, while the value in air source evaporator decreases. The overall performance can be enhanced by rising G, and the average COP increases from 2.23 to 2.40 with G increasing from 100W/m2 to 500W/m2. The rise of wind velocity can enhance heat transfer at air side, as well as COP, but the impact is not significant with the wind velocity exceeding 3m/s. In addition, the performance of the SA-SHPWH system can be further improved by utilizing PV/T collector.

Activation of the apelin receptor, or APJ, by apelin is considered a therapeutic avenue for cardiovascular disease, including heart failure. Recently, a novel endogenous ligand for APJ named Elabela (ELA) has been discovered and is known to possess anti-heart failure activity in animal models. However, the short in vivo half-life of ELA constrains its clinical potential. To extend its half-life in vivo, we attempted to make IgG-Fc-ELA fusion proteins. We found that Fc-ELA-32 fusion proteins are cleaved during protein production, whereas Fc-ELA-21 fusion proteins are expressed intact, so we focused our studies on the latter. The Fc-ELA-21 fusion protein retained its functionality in vitro and had a half-life of approximately 44 h in circulation in mice after subcutaneous injection. Daily injection of the fusion protein in MI rats for 4 weeks significantly mitigated heart dysfunction with respect to hemodynamics. At the cellular and tissue levels, treatment of Fc-ELA-21 fusion protein significantly increased angiogenesis, promoted cardiomyocyte proliferation and reduced apoptosis and heart fibrosis near the infarct area. In comparison, ELA-21 had a half-life of 13 min and showed no significant cardioprotective activities. These data suggest that Fc-ELA-21 may be a potential therapeutic for heart failure.

In this work, we investigate the use of advanced hydrogenation and low-temperature diffusion processes (a 3 h 700 °C process after emitter diffusion) for the electrical neutralization of laser-induced defects for laser doped and grooved solar cells. Despite the laser doping and grooving (LDG) process being performed before silicon nitride passivation to avoid thermal expansion mismatch between the silicon and the silicon nitride layer, some crystallographic defects are still formed during the process. The application of a low-temperature diffusion process increases implied open circuit voltages by 14 mV, potentially due to phosphorus diffusion of dislocated regions induced during laser processing. Laser hydrogenation is shown to be capable of passivating the majority of the remaining laser-induced defects. Over 1% absolute improvement in efficiency is achieved on cells with a full area aluminum back surface field. Preliminary results with minimal optimization demonstrate efficiencies of over 19% with a full area Al back contact cell. The potential to achieve much higher voltages when used with a passivated rear is also demonstrated.

Transglutaminase (TGase), the ubiquitous protein in plants, catalyzes the post-translational transformation of proteins and plays a vital role in photosynthesis. However, its role and mechanism in tomato subjected to heat stress still remain unknown. Here, we carried out a transcriptomic assay to compare the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between wild type (WT) and TGase overexpression (TGaseOE) plants employed to high-temperature at 42 °C and samples were collected after 0, 6, and 12 h, respectively. A total of 11,516 DEGs were identified from heat-stressed seedlings, while 1,148 and 1,353 DEGs were up-and down-regulated, respectively. The DEGs upon high-temperature stress were closely associated with the pathways encompassing protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum, carbon fixation, and photosynthetic metabolism. In addition, 425 putative transcription factors (TFs) were identified, and the majority of them associated with the bHLH, HSF, AP2/ERF, MYB, and WRKY families. RNA-seq data validation further confirmed that 8 genes were linked to protein processing and photosynthesis, and the mRNA level of these genes in TGaseOE was higher than that in WT plants, which is consistent in transcriptome results. In conclusion, these results reveal the transcriptional regulation between WT and TGaseOE in tomato under heat stress and shed light on a new dimension of knowledge of TGase-mediated thermotolerance mechanism at the molecular level.

Background and aimsThis study aimed to determine the relationship between Ki67 expression and the efficacy of postoperative adjuvant transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (PA-TACE) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.MethodsThe Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) rates between the sub-groups in the ki67 low expression group and the ki67 high expression group and analyze the relationship between the expression of Ki67 and the efficacy of TACE.ResultsAfter PSM, there was no significant difference in the RFS and OS between the surgery + TACE and surgery subgroups after 1, 2, or 3 years (RFS: 63.9%, 55.6%, and 42.9% vs. 83.3%, 63.9%, and 55.6%, respectively, P = 0.279; OS: 91.7%, 83.3%, and 74.3% vs. 91.7%, 88.9%, and 71.4%, respectively, P = 0.890) in the Ki67 low-expression group. The RFS and OS were higher in the surgery + TACE subgroup than the surgery subgroup after 1, 2, and 3 years (RFS: 80.0%, 77.5%, and 69.2% vs. 53.5%, 39.5%, and 32.6%, respectively, PConclusionsFor patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and high expression of Ki67 (Ki67≥20%), adjuvant hepatic artery chemoembolization after radical liver tumor resection effectively reduced the probability of tumor recurrence after surgery and prolonged the OS of patients. High Ki67 expression during the post-operative follow-up evaluation of hepatocellular carcinoma patients is an indicator for adjuvant TACE therapy.

Leucine zipper/EF hand-containing transmembrane-1 (LETM1) is an inner mitochondrial membrane protein that has been reported to be involved in many primary tumors and may regulate many biological processes. However, the biological role and molecular mechanism of LETM1 in the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain largely unknown. In this study, we found that LETM1 was highly expressed in HCC tissues and cell lines and that higher LETM1 expression was associated with a lower overall survival rate in HCC patients. In addition, knockdown of LETM1 inhibited proliferation and enhanced apoptosis and autophagy in the Huh 7 and QGY-7701 liver cancer cell lines. Mechanistically, knockdown of LETM1 dissociated the Beclin-1/Bcl-2 complex through phosphorylation of AMPK and Bcl-2. These results demonstrated that LETM1 is involved in the development of HCC and could be a novel therapeutic target in HCC.

Supplemental material, Supplementary Material 1, for An In Vitro Coumarin-Antibiotic Combination Treatment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilms by Jinpeng Zou, Yang Liu, Ruiwei Guo, Yu Tang, Zhengrong Shi, Mengnan Zhang, Wei Wu, Yinyin Chen and Kai Hou in Natural Product Communications

Background Transcriptional coactivator with PDZ binding motif (TAZ) regulates multiple biological processes and has been found to be related to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, common signaling pathways downstream after TAZ knockdown may also be important. Methods TAZ was knocked down in an HCC cell line, and its potential target genes were analyzed. A decrease in the expression of zinc finger and SCAN domain-containing protein 31 (ZSCAN31) was observed. The difference in ZSCAN31 expression was evaluated, and its effect on survival in HCC patients who received surgical resection was determined. Results ZSCAN31 was over-expressed in HCC tissues and was associated with low overall survival (OS) in HCC patients after surgical resection. Analysis of tissue samples from 83 HCC patients who underwent surgical resection in our hospital produced similar results. High ZSCAN31 expression was significantly associated with tumor size. High expression levels of both TAZ and ZSCAN31 were related to poor OS. A positive correlation was identified between ZSCAN31 expression and TAZ expression, and the protein binding of ZSCAN31 and TAZ was confirmed by co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) assay using an HCC cell line. Conclusions ZSCAN31 is associated with TAZ expression in HCC cells, and the targeting of ZSCAN31 and TAZ may represent a novel therapeutic approach in HCC.

Heat pump is a promising approach for low carbon heating/cooling driven by renewable electricity and adapting to multiple heat sources. In this paper, solar-air composite source multi-functional heat pump (SA-CMHP) with the capabilities of space heating, domestic water, space cooling, heat storage, and defrosting has been proposed to provide effective heating/cooling supply solutions for buildings. In SA-CMHP, as the distribution of refrigerant at evaporation side has great impact on its space heating and water heating performance. To optimize its performance under different working conditions, two different control schemes are developed. Mathematic model is established to evaluate and compare the behavior of SA-CMHP under different control schemes. The results reveal that control scheme 1 should be employed when the solar irradiation is insufficient, otherwise, control scheme 2 is more effective for space heating mode. Meanwhile, control scheme 1 should be adopted in water heating mode under different working conditions, as control scheme 1 can effectively reduce the heat loss to environment at evaporation side during the water heating process due to the capability of adaptive regulation of mass flow rate distribution at evaporation side.

Autophagy, an evolutionally conserved cellular degradation process, plays critical roles in plant development and stress response. Despite the wealth of information on the vital role of autophagy in responses to environmental stresses, little is known about the regulation of autophagy. In this study, we demonstrated that spermidine (Spd), a kind of polyamine, was involved in the regulation of salt tolerance through activating the expression of ATG (autophagy-related) genes and the formation of autophagosomes in cucumber under salt stress. Furthermore, NADPH oxidase-derived apoplastic H2O2-mediated Spd-induced salt tolerance and autophagy. Exogenous Spd significantly increased the tolerance to salt stress and inhibited the accumulation and ubiquitination of insoluble proteins. Foliar application of Spd promoted the transcript levels of ATG genes and autophagosomes formation. Besides, Spd induced the expression of RBOH (respiratory burst oxidase homolog), and the accumulation of H2O2 both in leaves and roots. However, either pretreatment with dimethylthiourea (DMTU, an H2O2 scavenger) or diphenyleneiodonium chloride (DPI, an inhibitor of NADPH oxidase) reduced Spd-induced accumulation of apoplastic H2O2. Importantly, Spd-induced salt tolerance and autophagy were compromised when plants were pretreated with DMTU or DPI. Furthermore, the silencing of ATG4 and ATG7 reduced Spd-induced salt tolerance and autophagosomes formation. Taken together, these results revealed that RBOH-dependent H2O2 mediated the Spd-induced autophagy and salt tolerance in cucumber. Abbreviations: Asat: light-saturated rate of CO2 assimilation; ATG: autophagy-related; DCF-DA: 2, 7-dichlorofluorescein diacetate; DMTU: dimethylthiourea; DPI: diphenyleneiodonium chloride; DW: dry weight; EL: electrolyte leakage; FW: fresh weight; Fv/Fm: the maximum quantum yield of photosystem II; GFP: green fluorescent protein; MDC: monodansylcadaverine; PDS: phytoene desaturase; PE: phosphatidylethanolamine; PLD: phospholipase D; RBOH: respiratory burst oxidase homolog; ROS: reactive oxygen species; SDS-PAGE: sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis; SIN1: salt induced NAC1; Spd: spermidine; TOR: target of rapamycin; VIGS: virus-induced gene silencing.

Summary Aim The aim of the study was to determine the clinical value of in vitro high-throughput drug sensitivity screening with primary hepatocellular carcinoma cells to select drugs for adjuvant chemotherapy. Methods This study included 162 patients who underwent hepatectomy from September 2013 to December 2016. The patients were divided into a drug sensitivity screening group and an empirical treatment group. High-throughput drug sensitivity screening using primary HCC cells was carried out and, based on the test results, effective drugs were selected for treatment. Patients in the empirical group were treated with commonly used drugs, according to the clinicians’ preferences. Clinical efficacy, i.e., disease-free survival (DFS) time, was compared between the two groups. Results Most patients with HCC showed extensive resistance to known chemotherapeutic drugs. However, bortezomib, regorafenib, sorafenib, romidepsin, hydroxycamptothecin and adriamycin + oxaliplatin showed strong anti-HCC activity in the sensitivity assay. Comparing clinical efficacy, the overall median DFS of patients in the drug sensitivity screening group was significantly better than that of patients in the empirical treatment group (17.00 ± 3.80 months vs. 9.00 ± 1.18 months, P = 0.001). Median DFS times in the TACE group were 9.00 ± 4.07 months vs. 7.00 ± 1.06 months (P = 0.014) and median DFS times in the oral drugs group were 16.80 ± 3.98 months vs. 10.00 ± 0.81 months (P = 0.024). Patients DFS was 69.4%, 62.5% at 1-, 2- years, respectively, for patients with drug sensitivity screening, and 48.5%, 37.8% at 1-, 2- years, respectively, for patients with empirical treatment. Conclusion High-throughput drug sensitivity screening can be successfully used to screen chemotherapeutic drugs for efficacy against HCC and the efficacious drugs can be used in postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy of HCC patients. This treatment paradigm is safe and reliable, and improves survival compared with empirical chemotherapy.

Both buried contact solar cells (BCSC) and laser doped selective emitter (LDSE) solar cells have achieved considerable success in large-scale manufacturing. Both technologies are based on plated contacts. High metal aspect ratios achieved by BCSC allow low shading loss while the buried metal contacts in the grooves provide good contact adhesion strength. In comparison, although the LDSE cell achieves significantly higher efficiencies and is a much simpler approach for forming the selective emitter region and self-aligned metal plating, the metal adhesion strength falls well short of that achieved by the BCSC. Recent studies show that plated contacts based on the latter can be more durable than screen-printed contacts. This work introduces a new concept of laser doping with grooving to form narrow grooves with heavily doped walls in a simultaneous step, with the self-aligned metal contact subsequently formed by plating. This process capitalizes on the benefits of both BCSC and LDSE cells. The laser-doped grooves are only 3–5 µm wide and 10–15 µm deep; the very steep walls of these grooves remain exposed even after the subsequent deposition of the antireflection coating (ARC). This unique feature significantly reduces the formation of laser-induced defects since the stress due to the thermal expansion mismatch between the ARC and silicon is avoided. Furthermore, the exposed walls allow nucleation of the subsequent metal plating. This novel structure also benefits from greatly enhanced adhesion of the plated contact due to it being buried underneath the silicon surface in the same way as the BCSC. Cell efficiencies over 19% are achieved by using this technology on p -type Czochralski (Cz) wafers with a full area aluminum (Al) back surface field (BSF) rear contact. It is expected that much higher voltages and consequently higher efficiencies could be achieved if this technology is combined with a passivated rear approach.

The improvement of adhesion strength and durability of plated contacts is required for cell manufacturers to gain confidence for large-scale manufacturing. To overcome weak adhesion at the metal/Si interface, new approaches were developed. These involve the formation of laser-ablated anchor points, or grooves in the extreme case of overlapping anchor points, in the heavily doped silicon surface. When plated, these features greatly strengthen the mechanical adhesion strength of the metal. A stylus-based adhesion tester was developed specifically for evaluating the effectiveness of plated contacts to smooth silicon surfaces. The use of such a tester was also extended in this work to textured and roughened surfaces to allow evaluation of different metal contacting approaches. The adhesion strengths for various metal contacting schemes were evaluated, including screenprinted silver contacts, nickel/copper (Ni/Cu) lightinduced plated (LIP) contacts for laser-doped selective emitter (LDSE) cells, buried-contact solar cells (BCSCs), and Ni/Cu LIP contacts formed with laser-ablated anchoring points in selective emitter (LAASE) cells. The latter has superior adhesion strength. The standard “peel test” of the industry was compared to the stylus-based adhesion testing, with the latter shown value for testing metal contacts on smooth surfaces but with caution needed for use with textured or roughened surfaces.

The drug resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a worldwide problem due to its great threat to human health. A crude extract of Angelica dahurica has been proved to have antibacterial properties, which suggested that it may be able to inhibit the biofilm formation of P. aeruginosa; initial exploration had shown that the crude extract could inhibit the growth of P. aeruginosa effectively. After the adaptive dose of coumarin was confirmed to be a potential treatment for the bacteria’s drug resistance, “coumarin-antibiotic combination treatments” (3 coumarins—simple coumarin, imperatorin, and isoimperatorin—combined with 2 antibiotics—ampicillin and ceftazidime) were examined to determine their capability to inhibit P. aeruginosa. The final results showed that (1) coumarin with either ampicillin or ceftazidime significantly inhibited the biofilm formation of P. aeruginosa; (2) coumarin could directly destroy mature biofilms; and (3) the combination treatment can synergistically enhance the inhibition of biofilm formation, which could significantly reduce the usage of antibiotics and bacterial resistance. To sum up, a coumarin-antibiotic combination treatment may be a potential way to inhibit the biofilm growth of P. aeruginosa and provides a reference for antibiotic resistance treatment.

A stratification phenomenon of aluminum rear alloyed layer was found in the study of aluminum rear emitter N-type solar cells. It is related to the composition of the paste. The outer aluminum alloyed layer can be called as aluminum doped emitter, and it gives the contribution to the junction formation. The inner layer is only the Al/Si mixed layer. The aluminum atoms in this layer are not bonded with silicon atoms. This inner layer will ruin the quality of the rear junction. The shunt resistance, reverse current density and the junction electric leakage value are getting worse when the thickness of the inner layer increases. The thickness of the inner Al/Si mixed layer increases with the increasing of firing temperature, while the depth of the aluminum doped emitter almost does not change. From the analyses, the inner Al/Si mixed layer is redundant and deleterious. Only a single deep aluminum doped rear emitter is needed for N-type solar cells. The highest power conversion efficiency of 19.93% for aluminum rear emitter N-type cells without the stratification phenomenon has been obtained.

In this paper, three kinds of thermal processes for boron-doped PERL cells were investigated. These are the forming gas annealing (FGA), the rapid thermal (RTP) and the low temperature annealing processes. FGA was introduced after laser ablation and doping in order to increase minority carrier lifetime by hydrogenating the trapping centers. Subsequent evaluation revealed considerable enhancement of minority carrier lifetime (from 150 μs to 240 μs) and the implied V oc (from 660 mV to 675 mV). After aluminum sputtering, three actual peak temperatures (370 °C, 600 °C and 810 °C) of RTP (as it occurs in the compressed air environment used in our experiment) were utilized to form a contact between the metal and the semi-conductor. It is concluded that only low temperature (lower than 600 °C) firing could create boron back surface field and high quality rear reflector. Lastly, a method of improving the performance of finished PERL cells which did not experience high temperature (over 800 °C) firing was investigated. Finished cells undergone low temperature annealing in N 2 atmosphere at 150 °C for 15 min produced 0.44% absolute increase in PERL cells. The enhancement of low temperature annealing originally comes from the activation of passivated boron which is deactivated during FGA.

Due to the trend toward thinner and higher efficient crystalline silicon solar cells, excellent rear surface passivation and internal optical reflectance have become more and more important. Aluminum oxide (AlOx) capped with silicon nitride (SiNy), which is considered as one of the most promising candidates to achieve superior rear passivation and internal reflectance, has to date been mostly used for the rear side of p-type monocrystalline silicon (mono-Si) solar cells. In this paper, we have optimized rear AlOx/SiNy stacks deposited by industrial plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) for multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) passivated emitter and rear cells (PERC). Sufficient passivation activation effect from industrial fast-firing process and SiNy deposition process have been demonstrated, so the samples were not subjected to additional thermal treatment process in the cell fabrication flow. For rear AlOx/SiNy stack, it is shown that when PECVD AlOx is thicker than 40 nm, apparent blisters in fired AlOx deteriorate the cell performance, and the appropriate SiNy capping is N-rich SiNy with thickness of at least 180 nm. After process optimization with the least additional process steps, independently confirmed efficiency of 18.5% for Pluto-PERC with PECVD AlOx/SiNy rear passivation on standard 156 mm × 156 mm p-type mc-Si wafers has been achieved.

Low-cost high-efficiency solar cells are the key to achieve grid parity with photovoltaic devices. Multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si) solar cells are low-cost but low-efficiency. High-quality rear passivation is essential for the achievement of this goal. This dielectric stack, in conjunction with a local back surface field, produced mc-Si passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) which efficiency exceeded 18.6%. The peak efficiency of 18.63% was achieved with Jsc of 37.44 mA/cm2 and Voc of 638 mV on commercial grade mc-Si wafers. Detailed characterization and modeling revealed that the increase in Voc and Jsc is the result of increased back surface reflectance from 74.8% to 90.7% and reduced back surface recombination velocity from 1800 to 260 cm/s. It was observed that the efficiency of mc-Si PERC solar cells decreased in degradation experiment.

For the purpose of manufacturing high efficiency p-type CZ crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells with conventional plated metallization and a passivated rear surface and local contacts, a thermally stable passivating system of plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) deposited a-Si:H/SiNx:H stack was developed in this work. Good thermal stability of this passivating stack capable of withstanding over 90 min thermal annealing at 400 °C enabled the implementation of hydrogenation processes to significantly enhance minority carrier lifetimes (τeff) in the bulk while simultaneously achieving compatibility with the metal contacting schemes that require relatively low sintering temperatures. Point local back surface field (LBSF) regions with effective surface recombination velocities (SRV) of less than 4800±400 cm/s were formed by laser-doping (LD) technique with optimized laser parameters on test wafers. The combination of the optimized a-Si:H/SiNx:H rear surface passivating stack, hydrogenation of the bulk and high quality LBSF formed by LD technique resulted in passivated emitter and rear locally diffused (PERL) cells with efficiency of up to 20.28% on a 13 cm2 industrial B-doped CZ silicon wafer. This is close to the record 20.3% efficient Pluto–PERL cells reported earlier this year and using the identically front surface designs. τeff of 1.7 ms with corresponding upperbound for the SRV of 5.8 cm/s was demonstrated with the same passivating stack on 1 Ω cm p-type FZ wafers.

Airborne vehicle tracking system is receiving increasing attention due to its high mobility, low cost and large surveillance scope. However, tracking multiple vehicles simultaneously on airborne platform is a challenging problem, owing to camera vibration, which causes visible frame-to-frame jitter in the airborne videos and uncertain vehicle motion. To address these problems, a new collaborative tracking framework is proposed in this paper. The framework consists of a two-level tracking process to track vehicles as groups. The higher level builds the relevance network and divides target vehicles into different groups, where the relevance is calculated based on the status information of vehicles obtained from the lower level. The proposed group tracking takes into account the relevance between vehicles and reduces the impact of camera vibration. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method has better performance in terms of tracking speed and tracking accuracy compared to other existing approaches based on particle filter and stationary grouping.

Nanoplasmonics recently has emerged as a new frontier of photovoltaic research. Noble metal nanostructures that can concentrate and guide light have demonstrated great capability for dramatically improving the energy conversion efficiency of both laboratory and industrial solar cells, providing an innovative pathway potentially transforming the solar industry. However, to make the nanoplasmonic technology fully appreciated by the solar industry, key challenges need to be addressed; including the detrimental absorption of metals, broadband light trapping mechanisms, cost of plasmonic nanomaterials, simple and inexpensive fabrication and integration methods of the plasmonic nanostructures, which are scalable for full size manufacture. This article reviews the recent progress of plasmonic solar cells including the fundamental mechanisms, material fabrication, theoretical modelling and emerging directions with a distinct emphasis on solutions tackling the above-mentioned challenges for industrial relevant applications.

Copper plated contacts have the potential to become the dominant front metallization technology over silver contacts if several key issues can be solved. These are addressed in this work. Through large batches of cells produced at Suntech on Pluto's 0.5 GW production line, it is shown that: adhesion concerns can be over come by optimized nickel seed layers or laser formed anchor points; long-term reliability can also be solved by an optimized nickel seed layer in conjunction with deep laser doping; and an absence of large-scale high-throughput inline plating equipment is no longer an issue. Average device efficiencies are 19–20% for Al-BSF and over 20% for PERC structures with record open circuit voltages but with a small efficiency loss when anchor points are applied.

Following intensive research and development, Suntech Power has successfully commercialised its Pluto technology with 0.5 GW annual production capacity, delivering up to 10% performance advantage over conventional screen-printed cells. The next generation of Pluto involves the development of improved rear surface design based on the design features of passivated emitter and rear locally diffused cells. Cells with an average efficiency over 20% were fabricated on 155 cm2 commercial-grade p-type wafers using mass-manufacturing processes and equipment, with the highest single-cell efficiency independently confirmed at 20.3%. This is believed to be a record efficiency for this wafer type. Further optimisation work on contact pattern and rear surface passivation suggests the potential for further efficiency increase approaching 23%. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Small molecule organic solar cells based on copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) and fullerene were fabricated using C60 and C70 as acceptors, respectively. The results showed that photovoltaic performances of the cells using C70-acceptor were better than that of C60-acceptor. The mechanisms of enhancement were systemically discussed on the energy level difference of the heterojunction, light absorption of the materials and quantum current distribution in the two kinds of fullerene molecules. The degradation of these two kinds of cells exposed in the air without encapsulation was also studied. It was found that the cells using C70 as an acceptor showed a better stability. This is because C60 can be easily destroyed by oxygen than C70. Thus, using C70 as an acceptor not only can increase the photovoltaic characteristics, but it also can dramatically improve the stability of the cells.

Background Apelin is a peptide ligand of the G-protein-coupled receptor APJ and exhibits anti-diabetes and anti-heart failure activities. However, short serum half-life of the apelin peptide limits its potential clinical applications. This study aimed to develop a long-acting apelin analog. Methods To extend apelin's in vivo half-life, we made a recombinant protein by fusing the IgG Fc fragment to apelin-13 (Fc-apelin-13), conducted pharmacokinetics studies in mice, and determined in vitro biological activities in suppressing cyclic adenosine monophosphate and activating extracellular signal-regulated kinase signalling by reporter assays. We investigated the effects of Fc-apelin-13 on food intake, body weight, fasting blood glucose and insulin levels, glucose tolerance test, hepatic steatosis, and cardiac function and fibrosis by subcutaneous administration of Fc-apelin-13 in diet-induced obese mice for 4 weeks. Results The estimated half-life of Fc-apelin-13 in blood was approximately 33 hours. Reporter assays showed that Fc-apelin-13 was active in suppressing cyclic adenosine monophosphate response element and activating serum response element activities. Four weeks of Fc-apelin-13 treatment in obese mice did not affect food intake and body weight, but resulted in a significant improvement of glucose tolerance, and a decrease in hepatic steatosis and fibrosis, as well as in serum alanine transaminase levels. Moreover, cardiac stroke volume and output were increased and cardiac fibrosis was decreased in the treated mice. Conclusions Fc-apelin-13 fusion protein has an extended in vivo half-life and exerts multiple benefits on obese mice with respect to the improvement of glucose disposal, amelioration of liver steatosis and heart fibrosis, and increase of cardiac output. Hence, Fc-apelin-13 is potentially a therapeutic for obesity-associated disease conditions.

Small molecule organic solar cells based on copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) and bulkfullerene (C 60 ) are fabricated with a PEDOT:PSS/LiF double anode buffer layer system that utilizes benefits of both a single LiF anode buffer layer and a single PEDOT:PSS buffer layer. Moreover, the performances of the cells are further improved. Meanwhile, this anode buffer layer system overcomes the stability shortages of the cells with a single anode buffer layer. The mechanisms of this anode buffer layer system are discussed. An MIS model is used here to explain enhancement of both photovoltaic characteristics and the stability.

Experts predict that copper plated metal contacts will eventually become the dominant metallisation for silicon wafer-based technologies once several key issues are solved. Of particular importance is the adhesion strength and hence durability of such plated contacts with many of the largest cell manufacturers currently nervous about considering such metallisation for large-scale manufacturing due to concerns in this area. A new approach for enhancing the adhesion strength for plated contacts involves establishing laser-machined anchor points in the silicon surface which when plated act to enhance both the ohmic contact and the mechanical adhesion strength for the metallisation. Cells manufactured on a production line using this innovation typically lose 0.1% in efficiency in absolute terms relative to identically manufactured cells that do not use the anchor points. BP Solar's Saturn cells using a similar approach have demonstrated that such plated contacts are at least as durable if not more durable than screen-printed contacts installed at the same time 20 years ago.

A drift-field in the base region of a solar cell can enhance the effective minority-carrier diffusion length, thus increasing the long-wavelength spectral response and energy-conversion efficiency. Silicon thin-films of 20–32 μm thickness as a cell base layer were grown by liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE) on electronically inactive heavily doped p++-type CZ silicon substrates. Growth was performed from In Ga solutions, and in a purified Ar 4% H 2 forming gas ambient, rather than pure H2. The Ga dopant concentration was tailored throughout the p-type film to create a drift-field in the base layer of the solar cell. An independently confirmed efficiency of 16.4% was achieved on such an LPE drift-field thin-film silicon solar cell with a total cell area of 4.11 cm2. Substrate thinning, combined with light trapping which is encouraged by the textured front surface and a highly reflective aluminium rear surface, is demonstrated to improve the long-wavelength response and thus, increase cell efficiency by a factor of up to 23.7% when thinned to a total cell thickness of 30 μm.

An energy conversion efficiency of 16.4% is reported for a silicon solar cell of 4.11 cm2 total area with a thin active layer of 32 μm grown by liquid phase epitaxy (LPE). This is the highest ever total area efficiency for a cell of this type and is due to a number of improvements over earlier reported results. The thin active layer was grown by LPE on an inactive silicon substrate from an indium solution in a 20% hydrogen/argon forming gas mixture ambient rather than pure hydrogen. Higher current density and efficiency than previously reported for similar cell structures have been achieved by employing microgroove texturing of the front surface, a very shallow (0.25 μm) and high sheet resistivity (220 Ω□) top surface phosphorus diffusion, an optimized ZnS/MgF2 double layer antireflection coating on top of a 200A thick, high quality passivation SiO2 layer, a large aspect ratio (0.45) for the metal contacts, and a graded doping level within the 32 μm thick LPE active layer. The effect of the improved techniques on the cell performance and the properties of the thin active layers are discussed.

This paper reports the effect of solvent and dopant impurities on the performance of LPE silicon solar cells. For LPE layers grown from Sn and In based solutions and having similar surface morphology and resistivity, the performance of solar cells made on LPE layers grown from In was always higher than that of cells made on LPE layers grown using Sn as solvent. Consistently higher performance was also obtained from solar cells fabricated upon Ga-doped LPE layers than from cells made on Al-doped LPE silicon. The best cell was fabricated upon a Ga-doped LPE layer grown from In solution and had a total area efficiency of 16.4% confirmed by Sandia measurements. The observed phenomena are explained on the basis of Hall mobilities and minority carrier lifetimes of LPE layers grown from different solutions, and also the oxidation difference of these layers during cell processing.