cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
WetAlOx: A Novel, Cost Effective, Negative Charge Passivation Method for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells
Creators: name: Schmid, E.
name: Schmitt, S.
name: Boescke, T.
name: Wefringhaus, E.
name: Buchholz, F.
name: Peter, C.
name: Marczak, R.
name: Ramakrishnan, A.
name: Mateescu, M.
name: Kunze, P.
Publisher: name: WIP
Year: 2018
Subjects: Silicon Cells
Homojunction Solar Cells

description: 35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 591-595
description: We present the development and evaluation of a novel negative charge passivation with cost effective aluminum oxide (Pascal). Instead of relying on vacuum processes, a thin, charge inducing aluminum oxide layer is generated by a novel wet-chemical process (“WetAlOx” process) on the silicon surface. This novel passivation layer was evaluated for state-of-the-art p-type PERC and n-type PERT solar cell concepts. The “WetAlOx” concept was investigated on cell level and precursor level with symmetrical lifetime samples. It was possible to generate negative surface charge densities (Qtot) from -4.0·1011 to -1.4·1012 cm-2 depending on process conditions. The surface charge density was mainly controlled by pH of the aluminium salt solution. By increasing the pH the surface charge density is becoming more negative. An undisered side effect of the increasing pH is the increased adsorption rates of undisired ions, which contaminate the surface. When applying a “WetAlOx” passivation stack to PERC cells the “WetAlOx” shows worse performance compared to bare silicon oxide / silicon nitride and ALD AlOx (atomic layer deposition aluminum oxide) passivation stacks. In the n-PERT cell concept the “WetAlOx” passivation stack shows comparable performance to conventional passivation methods such as silicon oxide / silicon nitride stack.
Governance in the era of Blockchain technology in Qatar: a roadmap and a manual for Trade Finance
Creators: name: Ibrahim, Imad Antoine
name: Truby, Jon
Publisher: name: Manara - Qatar Research Repository
Year: 2022
Subjects: Banking, finance and investment
Applied economics

description: Nations worldwide have sought to capitalize on the benefits of distributed ledger technology (DLT) including Blockchain, but struggled to strike a balance between encouraging investment and innovation in the technology while addressing the challenges and uncertainties through regulation. Through its FinTech (Financial Technology) Strategy, Qatar has sought to embrace DLT, but its regulatory approach also remains cautious. Trade Finance is an ideal business process to be disrupted through the benefits of DLT and especially Blockchain technology, since its processes remain antiquated, inefficient and lack digitization. Blockchain as a form of DLT particularly offers the Trade Finance process not only more rapid, secure, cost-effective and efficient procedures, but importantly completely assures trust between importers and exporters and removes the requirement to place such trust in third-party intermediaries. Qatar can reap considerable economic benefits through the enhancement of its Trade Finance regulations enabling the adoption of such Blockchain technology. As such, the authors propose a roadmap and manual for the governance of the Trade Finance Blockchain ecosystem in Qatar. The authors propose multi-layered governance approach to the regulation of Blockchain in Qatar by (1) embracing international regulations and standards; (2) replicating foreign regional and national rules that are appropriate and innovative; and (3) applying sandbox regulations to Blockchain products and services.Other Information Published in: Journal of Banking Regulation
 License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
See article on publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41261-021-00165-1
MPEC 2024-B182 : 2024 BE4
Creators: name: Minor Planet Center Staff
Publisher: name: The Minor Planet Center
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Small Solar System bodies
valueUri: http://astrothesaurus.org/uat/1469
subject: 2024 BE4

description: The Minor Planet Electronic Circulars contain information on unusual minor planets, routine data on comets and natural satellites, and occasional editorial announcements.  They are published on behalf of Division F of the International Astronomical Union by the Minor Planet Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Lüdemann, Ernst-August; Harms, Ludwig: Grüße alle meine Kinder, die weißen und die schwarzen...
Creators: name: Degenhardt, Werner
Publisher: name: Lutherische Beiträge
Year: 1970

description: Lutherische Beiträge, Bd. 7 Nr. 3 (2002): Lutherische Beiträge, Band 7, Heft 3
A Variational Analysis of Stochastic Gradient Algorithms
Creators: name: Mandt, Stephan
name: Hoffman, Matthew D.
name: Blei, David M.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Machine Learning (stat.ML)
subject: Machine Learning (cs.LG)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) is an important algorithm in machine learning. With constant learning rates, it is a stochastic process that, after an initial phase of convergence, generates samples from a stationary distribution. We show that SGD with constant rates can be effectively used as an approximate posterior inference algorithm for probabilistic modeling. Specifically, we show how to adjust the tuning parameters of SGD such as to match the resulting stationary distribution to the posterior. This analysis rests on interpreting SGD as a continuous-time stochastic process and then minimizing the Kullback-Leibler divergence between its stationary distribution and the target posterior. (This is in the spirit of variational inference.) In more detail, we model SGD as a multivariate Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process and then use properties of this process to derive the optimal parameters. This theoretical framework also connects SGD to modern scalable inference algorithms; we analyze the recently proposed stochastic gradient Fisher scoring under this perspective. We demonstrate that SGD with properly chosen constant rates gives a new way to optimize hyperparameters in probabilistic models.
description: 8 pages, 3 figures
Metallization Fraction of Bifacial pSPEER Shingle Solar Cells
Creators: name: Al-Akash, M.
name: Baliozian, P.
name: Lohmüller, E.
name: Fellmeth, T.
name: Wöhrle, N.
name: Preu, R.
Publisher: name: WIP
Year: 2018
Subjects: Silicon Cells
Homojunction Solar Cells

description: 35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 564-568
description: We present the investigation of metallization fraction of bifacial p-type silicon shingled passivated edge, emitter and rear (pSPEER) solar cells intended for shingled module integration. For the first group G1 (cell dimension: 23 mm x 148 mm), ten fabricated pSPEER cells, five each with a different busbar layout (single and double busbar), are utilized to measure the contact widths and calculate the metal coverage. Taking into account the shingling interconnected cell is overlapped, the reduced and therefore designated area metallization fraction is represented by the metal coverage of fingers and redundant line. The rear side metallization fraction for G1 for single and double busbar layouts based on designated area remain for both busbar types almost the same with around 25.9%. The same applies to the front side resulting in around 3.0%. For the second group G2 (cell dimension: 22 mm x 148 mm), five fabricated pSPEER cells are used. Metallization fraction for this group is lower than G1. The designated area metal coverage fraction on the rear side is 19.8%. The front side features metallization fraction of 2.8%. A complete overlap should be ensured precisely to avoid any variations in metallization fraction affecting the expected short-circuit current density values.
Impacts of twenty years of experimental warming on soil carbon, nitrogen, moisture and soil mites across alpine/subarctic tundra communities
Creators: name: Alatalo, Juha M.
name: Jägerbrand, Annika K.
name: Juhanson, Jaanis
name: Michelsen, Anders
name: Ľuptáčik, Peter
Publisher: name: Manara - Qatar Research Repository
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Environmental engineering
subject: FOS: Environmental engineering

description: High-altitude and alpine areas are predicted to experience rapid and substantial increases in future temperature, which may have serious impacts on soil carbon, nutrient and soil fauna. Here we report the impact of 20 years of experimental warming on soil properties and soil mites in three contrasting plant communities in alpine/subarctic Sweden. Long-term warming decreased juvenile oribatid mite density, but had no effect on adult oribatids density, total mite density, any major mite group or the most common species. Long-term warming also caused loss of nitrogen, carbon and moisture from the mineral soil layer in mesic meadow, but not in wet meadow or heath or from the organic soil layer. There was a significant site effect on the density of one mite species, Oppiella neerlandica, and all soil parameters. A significant plot-scale impact on mites suggests that small-scale heterogeneity may be important for buffering mites from global warming. The results indicated that juvenile mites may be more vulnerable to global warming than adult stages. Importantly, the results also indicated that global warming may cause carbon and nitrogen losses in alpine and tundra mineral soils and that its effects may differ at local scale.Other Information Published in: Scientific Reports
 License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
See article on publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep44489
The future of sleep health: a data-driven revolution in sleep science and medicine
Creators: name: Perez-Pozuelo, Ignacio
name: Zhai, Bing
name: Palotti, Joao
name: Mall, Raghvendra
name: Aupetit, Michaël
name: Garcia-Gomez, Juan M.
name: Taheri, Shahrad
name: Guan, Yu
name: Fernandez-Luque, Luis
Publisher: name: Manara - Qatar Research Repository
Year: 2022
Subjects: Health services and systems
Machine learning

description: In recent years, there has been a significant expansion in the development and use of multi-modal sensors and technologies to monitor physical activity, sleep and circadian rhythms. These developments make accurate sleep monitoring at scale a possibility for the first time. Vast amounts of multi-sensor data are being generated with potential applications ranging from large-scale epidemiological research linking sleep patterns to disease, to wellness applications, including the sleep coaching of individuals with chronic conditions. However, in order to realise the full potential of these technologies for individuals, medicine and research, several significant challenges must be overcome. There are important outstanding questions regarding performance evaluation, as well as data storage, curation, processing, integration, modelling and interpretation. Here, we leverage expertise across neuroscience, clinical medicine, bioengineering, electrical engineering, epidemiology, computer science, mHealth and human–computer interaction to discuss the digitisation of sleep from a inter-disciplinary perspective. We introduce the state-of-the-art in sleep-monitoring technologies, and discuss the opportunities and challenges from data acquisition to the eventual application of insights in clinical and consumer settings. Further, we explore the strengths and limitations of current and emerging sensing methods with a particular focus on novel data-driven technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence.Other Information Published in: npj Digital Medicine
 License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
See article on publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41746-020-0244-4
Effect of Light Absorption from Rear Side in Bifacial Interdigitated-Back-Contact (IBC) Crystalline Silicon Solar Cell
Creators: name: Tachibana, T.
name: Tanahashi, K.
name: Mochizuki, T.
name: Shirasawa, K.
name: Takato, H.
Publisher: name: WIP
Year: 2018
Subjects: Silicon Cells
Homojunction Solar Cells

description: 35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 574-576
description: In this study, effects of light absorption from rear side were investigated in bifacial interdigitated-back-contact (IBC) silicon solar cell. Our bifacial IBC solar cell has a front surface field (FSF) and screen-printed electrodes. A conversion efficiency of 19.7% was obtained from front side illumination with black sheet under the cell. When white sheet was placed under the cell, a conversion efficiency of 20.6% was obtained. These results indicate that bifacial IBC solar cells have the potential to fabricate two types of modules according to the condition of installing the modules. In the case of low absorption expectancy from the rear side such as residential space, a high reflectance back sheet under the cell would lead to a high-output as a one-sided absorption module. When set in a place with high absorption expectancy from the rear side such as PV plant, our bifacial module will lead to high output.
The internal quantum efficiency (IQE) spectrum and mapping analysis showed that further improvement could be obtained to suppress the carrier collection loss at the BSF region, especially busbar area. The busbar regions in both emitter and BSF act as low carrier collection centers. Thus, the Jsc of our cell is still low. The ratio of busbar electrodes on emitter and BSF region is approximately 7 % with respect to the cell area. By eliminating the busbar region, we expect to increase the Jsc by approximately 1 mA/cm2, which should lead to over 21% conversion efficiency.
Benchmark on a large cohort for sleep-wake classification with machine learning techniques
Creators: name: Palotti, Joao
name: Mall, Raghvendra
name: Aupetit, Michael
name: Rueschman, Michael
name: Singh, Meghna
name: Sathyanarayana, Aarti
name: Taheri, Shahrad
name: Fernandez-Luque, Luis
Publisher: name: Manara - Qatar Research Repository
Year: 2022
Subjects: Health services and systems
Machine learning

description: Accurately measuring sleep and its quality with polysomnography (PSG) is an expensive task. Actigraphy, an alternative, has been proven cheap and relatively accurate. However, the largest experiments conducted to date, have had only hundreds of participants. In this work, we processed the data of the recently published Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) Sleep study to have both PSG and actigraphy data synchronized. We propose the adoption of this publicly available large dataset, which is at least one order of magnitude larger than any other dataset, to systematically compare existing methods for the detection of sleep-wake stages, thus fostering the creation of new algorithms. We also implemented and compared state-of-the-art methods to score sleep-wake stages, which range from the widely used traditional algorithms to recent machine learning approaches. We identified among the traditional algorithms, two approaches that perform better than the algorithm implemented by the actigraphy device used in the MESA Sleep experiments. The performance, in regards to accuracy and F1 score of the machine learning algorithms, was also superior to the device’s native algorithm and comparable to human annotation. Future research in developing new sleep-wake scoring algorithms, in particular, machine learning approaches, will be highly facilitated by the cohort used here. We exemplify this potential by showing that two particular deep-learning architectures, CNN and LSTM, among the many recently created, can achieve accuracy scores significantly higher than other methods for the same tasks.Other Information Published in: npj Digital Medicine
 License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
See article on publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41746-019-0126-9
Selbstständige Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche (Hg.): Schuld und Vergebung
Creators: name: Martens, Gottfried
Publisher: name: Lutherische Beiträge
Year: 1970

description: Lutherische Beiträge, Bd. 7 Nr. 3 (2002): Lutherische Beiträge, Band 7, Heft 3
A Practical Bias Estimation Algorithm for Multisensor--Multitarget Tracking
Creators: name: Taghavi, Ehsan
name: Tharmarasa, R.
name: Kirubarajan, T.
name: Bar-Shalom, Yaakov
name: McDonald, Mike
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Methodology (stat.ME)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Bias estimation or sensor registration is an essential step in ensuring the accuracy of global tracks in multisensor-multitarget tracking. Most previously proposed algorithms for bias estimation rely on local measurements in centralized systems or tracks in distributed systems, along with additional information like covariances, filter gains or targets of opportunity. In addition, it is generally assumed that such data are made available to the fusion center at every sampling time. In practical distributed multisensor tracking systems, where each platform sends local tracks to the fusion center, only state estimates and, perhaps, their covariances are sent to the fusion center at non-consecutive sampling instants or scans. That is, not all the information required for exact bias estimation at the fusion center is available in practical distributed tracking systems. In this paper, a new algorithm that is capable of accurately estimating the biases even in the absence of filter gain information from local platforms is proposed for distributed tracking systems with intermittent track transmission. Through the calculation of the Posterior Cramér--Rao lower bound and various simulation results, it is shown that the performance of the new algorithm, which uses the tracklet idea and does not require track transmission at every sampling time or exchange of filter gains, can approach the performance of the exact bias estimation algorithm that requires local filter gains.
Hybridization and spin-orbit coupling effects in quasi-one-dimensional spin-1/2 magnet Ba3Cu3Sc4O12
Creators: name: Badrtdinov, D. I.
name: Volkova, O. S.
name: Tsirlin, A. A.
name: Solovyev, I. V.
name: Vasiliev, A. N.
name: Mazurenko, V. V.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We study electronic and magnetic properties of the quasi-one-dimensional spin-1/2 magnet Ba3Cu3Sc4O12 with a distinct orthogonal connectivity of CuO4 plaquettes. An effective low-energy model taking into account spin-orbit coupling was constructed by means of first-principles calculations. On this basis a complete microscopic magnetic model of Ba3Cu3Sc4O12, including symmetric and antisymmetric anisotropic exchange interactions, is derived. The anisotropic exchanges are obtained from a distinct first-principles numerical scheme combining, on one hand, the local density approximation taking into account spin-orbit coupling, and, on the other hand, projection procedure along with the microscopic theory by Toru Moriya. The resulting tensors of the symmetric anisotropy favor collinear magnetic order along the structural chains with the leading ferromagnetic coupling J1 = -9.88 meV. The interchain interactions J8 = 0.21 meV and J5 = 0.093 meV are antiferromagnetic. Quantum Monte Carlo simulations demonstrated that the proposed model reproduces the experimental Neel temperature, magnetization and magnetic susceptibility data. The modeling of neutron diffraction data reveals an important role of the covalent Cu-O bonding in Ba3Cu3Sc4O12.
description: 11 pages, 12 figures
The Performance of Cast Mono Wafer, Cell and Module
Creators: name: Wang, X.-S.
name: Zhou, S.
name: Gu, Y.
name: Xing, Z.
name: Galvez, T.
Publisher: name: WIP
Year: 2018
Subjects: Silicon Cells
Feedstock, Crystallisation, Wafering, Defect Engineering

description: 35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 543-547
description: Cast mono (quasi mono or mono-like) material is gaining attention in photovoltaic industry due to its potential to reach high efficiency close to p-type mono while keeping the cost level close to multi. Nevertheless, there still remain challenges to industrialize the technology. One is how to control the brick quality, to keep the mono percentage as high as possible, another is how to treat the outlier wafer during cell texturing which will result in very shiny parts and be rejected by the end customers. The cost should also be considered nowadays as photovoltaic is a cost driven industry. The good news are we developed a suitable casting process which the mono percentage reaches 90% and we are using metal catalyzed chemical etching (MCCE) texturing process to create black silicon for the outlier wafer. The solutions we carried out paves the way for the cast mono technology. G5 cast mono brick is grown using ECM Crystalmax furnace by a special seed arrangement and corresponding recipe. The brick quality is greatly improved due to lack of grain boundaries (GB). The defect multiplication is also carefully controlled. The brick is squared, cropped, polished and cut into wafers using diamond wire sawing (DWS). The wafers are sorted by the center, the edge and the corner location to study different behavior. For the center wafers, as it is very close to mono, the alkaline texture and standard PERC process is applied. The cell efficiency reaches 20.9% average due to better lifetime. For the wafers from the edge and the corner, the MCCE texture and standard PERC process is using. The efficiency reaches 20.2% for edge and 19.7% for the corner due to lower light trapping. The cells have very uniform outlook without any shiny parts thanks to the black silicon treatment on the surface. Modules were made using the produced center cells. Max module power output reaches 370 watts using 144 half-cell designs. The power is quite promising which makes the product competitive on the market. Characterization from brick to wafer, cell and module were also carried out in this paper to verify the performance and give possible explanations.
First-principles studies of defect behaviour in bismuth germanate
Creators: name: Akande, Salawu Omotayo
name: Bouhali, Othmane
Publisher: name: Manara - Qatar Research Repository
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Materials engineering
subject: FOS: Materials engineering

description: Intrinsic defects are known to greatly affect the structural and electronic properties of scintillators thereby impacting performance when these materials are in operation. In order to overcome this effect, an understanding of the defect process is required for the design of more stable materials. Here we employed density functional theory calculations and the PBE0 hybrid functional to study the structural, electronic,defect process and optical properties of $$\hbox {Bi}_4\hbox {Ge}_3\hbox {O}_{{12}}$$ Bi 4 Ge 3 O 12 (BGO), a well know material used as scintillator. We examined possible intrinsic defects and calculated their formation energy and their impact on the properties that affect the scintillation process. Furthermore, we investigated the effect and role of rare earth element (REE = Nd, Pr, Ce and Tm) doping on the properties of the BGO system. While the PBE functional underestimated the band gap, the PBE0 was found to adequately describe the electronic properties of the system. Out of all the defects types considered, it was found that $$\hbox {Bi}_{{Ge}}$$ Bi Ge antisite is the most favourable defect. Analysis of the effect of this defect on the electronic properties of BGO revealed an opening of ingap states within the valence band. This observation suggests that the $$\hbox {Bi}^{3+}$$ Bi 3 + could be a charge trapping defect in BGO. We found that the calculated dopant substitution formation energy increases with increase in the size of the dopant and it turns out that the formation of O vacancy is easier in doped systems irrespective of the size of the dopant. We analyzed the optical spectra and noted variations in different regions of the photon energy spectra.Other Information Published in: Scientific Reports
 License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
See article on publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-18586-x
Excitation dependent Raman studies of self-seeded grown InN nanoparticles with different carrier concentration
Creators: name: Madapu, Kishore K.
name: Polaki, S. R.
name: Dhara, Sandip
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: High quality InN nanoparticles are grown using atmospheric chemical vapour deposition technique via a self-seeded catalytic approach in the temperature range of 580 to 650 oC. In this temperature region, nucleation barrier of InN is overcome by seeding the low density In nano-particles prior to the introduction of reactive ammonia. Samples having increasing carrier density are grown with the help of increasing growth temperature to understand its role in optical phonon structure. Near resonance Raman spectra show complete different phonon pictures as compared to those for the off-resonance spectra. A Raman forbidden mode of B1(high), because of the possible breakdown of selection rule in the near-resonance condition, is invoked for the first time. Intensity and frequency of this mode strongly depend on the carrier concentration in the sample. In off-resonance conditions, A1(LO) mode for the sample with high carrier concentration is dominated by Fano interference rather than plasmon-phonon coupling. Variation of intensity of the B1(high) mode is correlated with band filling effect, which is substantiated by the luminescence studies of the InN samples with different carrier concentration.
description: 17 pages, 5 figures, Communicated to journal
Optimization of Surface Passivation for Black Silicon Based on Thermal Oxidation
Creators: name: Zhang, S.
name: Qian, H.
name: Peng, J.
name: Jie, J.
name: Zhang, X.
name: Wei, Q.
name: Ni, Z.
Publisher: name: WIP
Year: 2018
Subjects: Silicon Cells
Homojunction Solar Cells

description: 35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 548-551
description: Because of the large emitter specific surface area of black silicon solar cell, conventional silicon nitride coating deposited by PECVD can’t provide conformal passivation, which results in severe surface recombination and low open circuit voltage. Through introducing thermally grown silicon dioxide between the emitter and antireflection coating, the serious surface recombination can be suppressed effectively without too much cost. Except for the improved open circuit voltage, short wavelength response can also be enhanced due to the reduced surface recombination velocity on the front side. Hence, the efficiency potential of black silicon solar cell can be further exploited on account of this low-cost silicon dioxide introduced, which is definitely beneficial for the reduction of LCOE (Levelized Cost of Electricity) and achievement of grid parity.
Genetic diversity of Prosopis juliflora in the state of Qatar and its valuable use against postharvest pathogen of mango fruits
Creators: name: Saleh, Iman
name: Ahmed, Talaat
name: Halboosi, Ream
name: Abu-Dieyeh, Mohammed
Publisher: name: Manara - Qatar Research Repository
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Ecology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences

description: Mango (Mangifera indica) is the second most internationally traded tropical fruit in the world. The fruit has high nutritional value. Its susceptibility to postharvest diseases and chill injuries increases its storage cost and put stress on exploring natural products that can increase its shelf-life. Our team has previously described Prosopis juliflora water-soluble leaf ethanolic (PJ-WS-LE) extract with fungicidal effectiveness against spoiling fungi. The present study explores P. juliflora genetic diversity in the state of Qatar and the antifungal effectiveness of the leaf extract of plants collected from different locations. The study also evaluates PJ-WS-LE extract efficacy against Alternaria. alternata and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides inoculated in mango samples and the power of the extract as coating material. P. juliflora samples collected from six different locations showed genetic and antimicrobial effectiveness similarities. They showed also similarity to the sequence representing P. juliflora 18S ribosomal RNA partial sequence, accession number JX139107.1 originated from India. PJ-WS-LE extract (8 mg/ml) has 80% efficacy in controlling A. alternata in mango and it lowers C. gloeosporioides disease severity by 53.4%. PJ-WS-LE extract (8 mg/ml) embedded in 1% chitosan maintained mango quality for 5 weeks. In vivo results of PJ-WS-LE extract highlights the potentials of the extract as chemical fungicides replacement.Other Information Published in: Scientific Reports
 License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
See article on publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-14871-x
Evaluation of a New Hybrid Crucible Concept for Crystallization of mc-Silicon Ingots
Creators: name: Morche, C.
name: Bähr, T.
name: Ghosh, M.
name: Kranert, C.
name: Zimmermann, A.
name: Franz, H.
Publisher: name: WIP
Year: 2018
Subjects: Silicon Cells
Feedstock, Crystallisation, Wafering, Defect Engineering

description: 35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 493-497
description: In order to overcome the well-known obstacles of silica crucibles in mc- and HPM silicon crystallization we tested a so called hybrid crucible consisting of a re-usable bottom plate with higher thermal conductivity and bottomless silica side walls. As a possible material for this bottom plate we considered silicon carbide as suitable. Crystallization experiments were performed in Access’ SCU400-G1 furnace. In our tests the junction between bottom plate and side walls together with the choice of thermal process conditions revealed as critical parameters for success. The ingots produced so far resemble typical HPM ingots made under similar conditions in charge carrier lifetime and Oi and Cs content. So far the bottom plate was used for 3 following crystallization processes without significant wear.
Aortic valve function post-replacement of severe aortic stenosis by transcatheter procedure versus surgery: a systematic review and metanalysis
Creators: name: Abi Khalil, Charbel
name: Ignatiuk, Barbara
name: Erdem, Guliz
name: Chemaitelly, Hiam
name: Barilli, Fabio
name: El-Shazly, Mohamed
name: Al Suwaidi, Jassim
name: Aboulsoud, Samar
name: Kofler, Markus
name: Stastny, Lukas
name: Jneid, Hani
name: Bonaros, Nikolaos
Publisher: name: Manara - Qatar Research Repository
Year: 2022
Subjects: Clinical sciences

description: Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has shown to reduce mortality compared to surgical aortic valve replacement (sAVR). However, it is unknown which procedure is associated with better post-procedural valvular function. We conducted a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials that compared TAVR to sAVR for at least 2 years. The primary outcome was post-procedural patient-prosthesis-mismatch (PPM). Secondary outcomes were post-procedural and 2-year: effective orifice area (EOA), paravalvular gradient (PVG) and moderate/severe paravalvular leak (PVL). We identified 6 trials with a total of 7022 participants with severe aortic stenosis. TAVR was associated with 37% (95% CI [0.51–0.78) mean RR reduction of post-procedural PPM, a decrease that was not affected by the surgical risk at inclusion, neither by the transcatheter heart valve system. Postprocedural changes in gradient and EOA were also in favor of TAVR as there was a pooled mean difference decrease of 0.56 (95% CI [0.73–0.38]) in gradient and an increase of 0.47 (95% CI [0.38–0.56]) in EOA. Additionally, self-expandable valves were associated with a higher decrease in gradient than balloon ones (beta = 0.38; 95% CI [0.12–0.64]). However, TAVR was associated with a higher risk of moderate/severe PVL (pooled RR: 9.54, 95% CI [5.53–16.46]). All results were sustainable at 2 years.Other Information Published in: Scientific Reports
 License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
See article on publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-91548-x
An Efficient Optimized RTP Process to Minimize Light Induced Degradation Phenomenon and Their Effect on Surface Roughness in p-Type Cz-Si Wafers
Creators: name: Kouhlane, Y.
name: Bouhafs, D.
name: Khelifati, N.
name: Mezghiche, S.
name: Guenda, A.
name: Hetatache, W.
name: Derkaoui, F.
Publisher: name: WIP
Year: 2018
Subjects: Silicon Cells
Feedstock, Crystallisation, Wafering, Defect Engineering

description: 35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 539-542
description: In this study, the carrier lifetime variation of p-type boron-doped Czochralski silicon (Cz-Si) wafers was investigated after a direct rapid thermal processing (RTP). Two wafers were passivated by silicon nitride (SiNx:H) layers, deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system on both surfaces. Then the wafers were subjected to an RTP cycle at a peak temperature of 620°C. The first wafer was protected (PW) from the direct radiative heating of the RTP furnace by placing the wafer between two as-cut Cz-Si shield wafers during the heat treatment. The second wafer was not protected (NPW) and followed the same RTP cycle. The carrier lifetime eff was measured by the quasi-steady-state photoconductance (QSSPC) technique, before and after an illumination step at 0.5 suns for 5 hours duration. The immediate results of measured lifetime RTP after the RTP process have shown regeneration in the lifetime for the two wafers, but the PW wafer exhibited an important enhancement in RTP compared to the NPW wafer. The QSSPC measurements after 5h of illumination have indicated a good stabilization of lifetime (d) and a weak degradation effect was observed for the PW wafer compared to their initial lifetime. Additionally, to improve the correlation between the RTP heat radiation stress and carrier lifetime behavior, a simulation of the thermal stress and temperature profile by the finite element COMSOL software on the wafers surface at RTP peak temperature of 620°C was performed. The results confirm the reduction of the thermal stress and less heat loss for the protected wafer. Finally, the proposed method can lead to improving the lifetime of wafers by an RTP process with minimum energy costs.
Reduced odds of diabetes associated with high plasma salivary α-amylase activity in Qatari women: a cross-sectional study
Creators: name: Al-Akl, Neyla S.
name: Thompson, Richard Ian
name: Arredouani, Abdelilah
Publisher: name: Manara - Qatar Research Repository
Year: 2022
Subjects: Clinical sciences

description: The association of salivary α-amylase activity (SAA) activity or low copy number of its coding gene AMY1 with diabetes remains controversial. We aimed to reinvestigate the association of these factors with diabetes in Qatar, where diabetes prevalence is about 16%. We obtained cross-sectional data of 929 Qataris (age > 18 years) from the Qatar Biobank. We estimated AMY1 copy number variants (CNV) from whole-genome data, and quantified the SAA activity in plasma (pSAA). We used adjusted logistic regression to examine the association between pSAA activity or AMY1 CNV and diabetes odds. We found a significant association between high pSAA activity, but not AMY1 CNV, and reduced odds of diabetes in Qatari women. The OR per pSAA activity unit was 0.95 [95% CI 0.92, 0.98] (p = 0.002) (pSAA activity range: 4.7 U/L to 65 U/L) in women. The association is driven largely by the highest levels of pSAA activity. The probability of having diabetes was significantly lower in the fifth pSAA activity quintile relative to the first (0.21 ± 0.03 (Q1) versus 0.82 ± 0.02 (Q5)), resulting in significantly reduced diabetes prevalence in Q5 in women. Our study indicates a beneficial effect of high pSAA activity, but not AMY1 CN, on diabetes odds in Qatari women, and suggests pSAA activity levels as a potential marker to predict future diabetes in Qatari women.Other Information Published in: Scientific Reports
 License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
See article on publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-90977-y
Multisensor--Multitarget Bearing--Only Sensor Registration
Creators: name: Taghavi, Ehsan
name: Tharmarasa, R.
name: Kirubarajan, T.
name: McDonald, Mike
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Methodology (stat.ME)
subject: Systems and Control (eess.SY)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences
subject: FOS: Electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering

description: Bearing--only estimation is one of the fundamental and challenging problems in target tracking. As in the case of radar tracking, the presence of offset or position biases can exacerbate the challenges in bearing--only estimation. Modeling various sensor biases is not a trivial task and not much has been done in the literature specifically for bearing--only tracking. This paper addresses the modeling of offset biases in bearing--only sensors and the ensuing multitarget tracking with bias compensation. Bias estimation is handled at the fusion node to which individual sensors report their local tracks in the form of associated measurement reports (AMR) or angle-only tracks. The modeling is based on a multisensor approach that can effectively handle a time--varying number of targets in the surveillance region. The proposed algorithm leads to a maximum likelihood bias estimator. The corresponding Cramér--Rao Lower Bound to quantify the theoretical accuracy that can be achieved by the proposed method or any other algorithm is also derived. Finally, simulation results on different distributed tracking scenarios are presented to demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed approach. In order to show that the proposed method can work even with false alarms and missed detections, simulation results on a centralized tracking scenario where the local sensors send all their measurements (not AMRs or local tracks) are also presented.
Thermal Stress Minimization in Silicon Ribbon Growth Processes by Thermal Gradients Modulation with 808 nm Laser Scanning
Creators: name: Pera, D.M.
name: Brito, M.C.
name: Vallêra, A.M.
name: Serra, J.M.
name: Alves, J.M.
Publisher: name: WIP
Year: 2018
Subjects: Silicon Cells
Feedstock, Crystallisation, Wafering, Defect Engineering

description: 35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 498-500
description: The temperature profile near the solid-liquid interface in the crystal growth direction is an important parameter since it will affect crystal defects structure. The bi-dimensional geometry of silicon ribbons reduces, by principle, the complexity of cooling gradients control when compared with traditional industrial directional solidification. In this work, we present a method to modulate and actively control the temperature distribution during growth of silicon ribbons. The method was explored in a silicon ribbon growth experimental set-up based on electric molten zone, EZ-Ribbon. Electric molten zone (EMZ) crystallization is a method that relies on silicon’s electric conductivity increase with temperature. A positive feedback pattern leads to virtually all current collapsing into a thin molten capillary. The high power 808nm diode laser scanner used to stimulate locally the EMZ formation was also used to control the contiguous temperature distribution in the crystallization direction. The EZ-Ribbon technique configures a float zone method, featuring attractive kerfless, contamination-free and low energy budget crystallization mechanism. In particular, high crystalline quality may be, in the near future, its main issue regarding the present laser assisted thermal gradient modulation procedure.
Omega-3 fatty acid-rich fish oil supplementation prevents rosiglitazone-induced osteopenia in aging C57BL/6 mice and in vitro studies
Creators: name: Cugno, Chiara
name: Kizhakayil, Dhanya
name: Calzone, Rita
name: Rahman, Shaikh Mizanoor
name: Halade, Ganesh V.
name: Rahman, Md M.
Publisher: name: Manara - Qatar Research Repository
Year: 2022
Subjects: Clinical sciences

description: Rosiglitazone is an effective insulin-sensitizer, however associated with bone loss mainly due to increased bone resorption and bone marrow adiposity. We investigated the effect of the co-administration of fish oil rich in omega-3 fatty acids (FAs) on rosiglitazone-induced bone loss in C57BL/6 mice and the mechanisms underlying potential preventive effect. Mice fed the iso-caloric diet supplemented with fish oil exhibited significantly higher levels of bone density in different regions compared to the other groups. In the same cohort of mice, reduced activity of COX-2, enhanced activity of alkaline phosphatase, lower levels of cathepsin k, PPAR-γ, and pro-inflammatory cytokines, and a higher level of anti-inflammatory cytokines were observed. Moreover, fish oil restored rosiglitazone-induced down-regulation of osteoblast differentiation and up-regulation of adipocyte differentiation in C3H10T1/2 cells and inhibited the up-regulation of osteoclast differentiation of RANKL-treated RAW264.7 cells. We finally tested our hypothesis on human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells differentiated to osteocytes and adipocytes confirming the beneficial effect of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) omega-3 FA during treatment with rosiglitazone, through the down-regulation of adipogenic genes, such as adipsin and FABP4 along the PPARγ/FABP4 axis, and reducing the capability of osteocytes to switch toward adipogenesis. Fish oil may prevent rosiglitazone-induced bone loss by inhibiting inflammation, osteoclastogenesis, and adipogenesis and by enhancing osteogenesis in the bone microenvironment.Other Information Published in: Scientific Reports
 License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
See article on publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-89827-8
Eco-Solar Factory: Utilisation of Kerf-Loss from Silicon Wafer Sawing for the Manufacturing of Silicon Nitride Crucibles
Creators: name: Bellmann, M.P.
name: Noja, G.
name: Ciftja, A.
Publisher: name: WIP
Year: 2018
Subjects: Silicon Cells
Feedstock, Crystallisation, Wafering, Defect Engineering

description: 35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 501-502
description: H2020-FOF-13-2015 Eco-Solar submitted in 2015 envisions to increase resource and energy efficiency over the entire photovoltaic value chain, while simultaneously maximising recycling possibilities, by introducing design for recovery, repair and reuse, and collaborating for improvements in waste reduction.
Up to 50% of silicon is lost in form of fine powders (kerf-loss) during the mechanical processing of ingots to obtain wafers. The ability to recycle the kerf-loss has beneficial effect in terms of savings of precious poly-silicon consumption and of waste reduction. Due to the high energy requirement (150 kWh/kg) and CO2 emissions (40 kg CO2-eq/ kg Si) associated with poly-silicon production with the traditional Siemens route, significant impact in environmental sustainability is expected by the recycling of the kerf-loss as secondary feedstock material. In this work recent results on reusing recovered silicon kerf-loss for manufacturing of silicon nitride crucibles are presented.
Fermion mass matrices, textures and beyond
Creators: name: Gupta, Manmohan
name: Fakay, Priyanka
name: Sharma, Samandeep
name: Ahuja, Gulsheen
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The issue of texture specific fermion mass matrices have been examined briefly from the `bottom-up' perspective. In case no conditions are imposed, the texture ansatze leads to a large number of viable possibilities. However, besides textures, if in case one incorporates the ideas of `natural mass matrices' and uses the facility of Weak Basis Transformations, then one is able to arrive at a minimal finite set of viable mass matrices in the case of quarks.
description: 8 pages, 1 figure
Slurry Sawing of Multicrystalline Silicon with Low-Viscosity Carrier Liquid
Creators: name: Kaden, T.
name: Look, C.
name: Ischenko, V.
name: Gröschel, M.
name: Anspach, O.
Publisher: name: WIP
Year: 2018
Subjects: Silicon Cells
Feedstock, Crystallisation, Wafering, Defect Engineering

description: 35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 511-514
description: The wafering of crystalline silicon is industrially realized by wire sawing with loose abrasive particles dispersed in a carrier medium (slurry process) or by fixed diamond particles embedded on the wire (diamond wire sawing - DWS). DWS demonstrates cost advantages by the usage of a cheap cooling fluid, which consists of water with about 2% of additives. In the slurry process, SiC particles are used as abrasive typically dispersed in polyethylene glycol (PEG200) as carrier liquid. A cost reduction of this process by saving electrical energy can be achieved by the usage of a lower-viscosity carrier liquid. In this contribution, PEG200 is substituted by the lower-viscosity organic substance propylene carbonate. In four consecutive sawing processes on multicrystalline silicon bricks, the cutting performance of this liquid was tested. The results are compared with the standard sawing process using PEG200. It was found that the average power of the wire saw main drive can be reduced by about 60%.
Wafering Performance of Structured Wire in Correlation to the Wire Geometry
Creators: name: Köpge, R.
name: Buehler, K.
name: Kaule, F.
name: Schoenfelder, S.
name: Anspach, O.
Publisher: name: WIP
Year: 2018
Subjects: Silicon Cells
Feedstock, Crystallisation, Wafering, Defect Engineering

description: 35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 515-521
description: Nowadays two main multi wire wafering technologies are established, the loose and the fixed abrasive
process. The latter process, which is known as diamond wire technology, seems to dominate the market compared to
the conventional slurry based wafering process over the next years. However, over the last years the usage of
structured wire within the slurry based process was established and a significant decrease of process time and
consumable’s consumption was achieved. In this study an extensive DoE was performed for a closer investigation of
these process parameter correlations. The structured wire diameter, the silicon carbide (SiC) particle size and the
table speed were varied which results in a complex process behavior. Additionally, wire samples are analyzed by a
high resolution topography measurement with a specific analysis software. The wire data are correlated to the
wafering performance for each parameter setup. Twenty-seven process configurations are investigated. In conclusion,
the best setup for an optimum of wafering performance is detected as well as a correlation to the wire structure.
Ab-initio based analytical evaluation of entropy in magnetocaloric materials with first order phase transitions
Creators: name: Piazzi, Marco
name: Zemen, Jan
name: Basso, Vittorio
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We combine spin polarised density functional theory and thermodynamic mean field theory to describe the phase transitions of antiperovskite manganese nitrides. We find that the inclusion of the localized spin contribution to the entropy, evaluated through mean field theory, lowers the transition temperatures. Furthermore, we show that the electronic entropy leads to first order phase transitions in agreement with experiments whereas the localized spin contribution adds second order character to the transition. We compare our predictions to available experimental data to assess the validity of the assumptions underpinning our multilevel modelling.
description: PDFLaTeX, 10 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in Physics Procedia as ICM 2015 Conference Proceeding