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Study of alternative back contacts for thin film Cu2ZnSnSe4-based solar cells

Cu2ZnSnSe4 thin film solar cells are usually fabricated on a soda lime glass substrate with a molybdenum (Mo) back contact. It is suspected that degradation in electrical performance occurs due to the formation of a barrier between the absorber and Mo back contact. To overcome such degradation, Titanium Nitride (TiN), Titanium Tungsten (TiW), Chromium (Cr), Titanium (Ti) and Aluminum (Al) deposited on Mo-coated glass substrates are investigated as alternative back contact materials. Physical and electrical characterization as well as photoluminescence measurements are performed. Compositional

Circuit Theory and Applications
Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness

Multistability Analysis and Function Projective Synchronization in Relay Coupled Oscillators

Regions of stability phases discovered in a general class of Genesio-Tesi chaotic oscillators are proposed. In a relatively large region of two-parameter space, the system has coexisting point attractors and limit cycles. The variation of two parameters is used to characterize the multistability by plotting the isospike diagrams for two nonsymmetric initial conditions. The parameters window in which the jerk system exhibits the unusual and striking feature of multiple attractors (e.g., coexistence of six disconnected periodic chaotic attractors and three-point attraction) is investigated. The

Circuit Theory and Applications
Software and Communications
Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness

Influence of Periodic Surface Nanopatterning Profiles on Series Resistance in Thin-Film Crystalline Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

In the frame of the development of thin crystalline silicon solar cell technologies, surface nanopatterning of silicon is gaining importance. Its impact on the material quality is, however, not yet fully controlled.We investigate here the influence of surface nanotexturing on the series resistance of a contacting scheme relevant for thin-film crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells. Twodimensional periodic nanotextures are fabricated using a combination of nanoimprint lithography and either dry or wet etching, while random pyramid texturing is used for benchmarking. We compare these

Energy and Water
Circuit Theory and Applications
Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness

Implementing earned value management using bridge information modeling

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has widely become an effective tool in engineering and construction fields. It could be used in: generating shop drawings; detecting clashes; estimating quantities; and controlling documents. Applying BIM technology on bridges is named Bridge Information Modeling (BrIM). Bridge Information Modeling (BrIM) is an intelligent representation of bridges since it contains all information needed about bridges through their whole lifecycle. This paper presents the use of Building Information Modeling in cost and time management of infrastructure bridges. BIM-based

Energy and Water
Circuit Theory and Applications
Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness

Integration of a 2-D periodic nanopattern into thin-film polycrystalline silicon solar cells by nanoimprint lithography

The integration of 2-D periodic nanopattern defined by nanoimprint lithography and dry etching into aluminum-induced crystallization-based polycrystalline silicon thin-film solar cells is investigated experimentally. Compared with the unpatterned cell, an increase of 6% in the light absorption has been achieved thanks to the nanopattern, which, in turn, increased the short-circuit current from 20.6 to 23.8 mA/cm2. The efficiency, on the other hand, has limitedly increased from 6.4% to 6.7%. We show using the transfer length method that the surface topography modification caused by the

Energy and Water
Circuit Theory and Applications
Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness

Studying the effect of channel geometry on different water quality variables for effective designs and waste allocation plans for waterways

It is necessary to study the parameters that affect water quality in order to devise mitigation measures if water quality would be at risk or negatively affected by those parameters. Those parameters are physical, chemical, biological, and hydraulic characteristics. This research will study the effect of channel geometry on different water quality variables, which is important in designing new irrigation canals in order to see how its geometry will affect water quality and lessen any negative impact if possible also this study could aid in designing more reliable waste allocation plans for

Agriculture and Crops
Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness

An eco-concerned development of a fast, precise and economical spectrophotometric assay for the antiviral drug simeprevir based on ion-pair formation

Simeprevir sodium (SMV) is one of the antiviral drugs used for the treatment of virus C. The current strategy develops and validates a new eco-concerned tool for its quantification in the pure and pharmaceutical formulations. Sulfonephthalein acid dyes were used for this purpose, applying visible analyses based on ion-pair formation. A linear relation between the absorbed signal and the drug concentration is obtained up to 67.0 μg mL-1 with r2 of 0.9989-0.9999. The measurement is carried out at 410, 415, 410, and 403 nm for bromocresol green, bromoxelenol blue, bromothymol blue, and

Healthcare
Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness

Neuro-fuzzy system for 3-dof parallel robot manipulator

Planar Parallel manipulators (PPMs) are widely used these days, as they have many advantages compared to their serial counterparts. However, their inverse and direct kinematics are hard to obtain, due to the complexity of the manipulators' behavior. Therefore, this paper provides a comparative analysis for two methods that were used to obtain the inverse kinematics of a 3-RRR manipulator. Instead of the conventional algebraic and graphical methods used for attaining the mathematical models for such manipulators, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference structure (AFNIS) model was alternatively

Artificial Intelligence
Software and Communications
Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness

Improved Production Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) Using Intelligent-Manufacturing Execution Systems (I-MES)

The aim of this research is to reduce the gap between manufacture expertise and management expertise by using modern technology like Manufacturing Execution System (MES) via Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machin Learning (ML). A design of MES has been proposed and implemented on El-Araby Plastic Injection Molding (PIM) factory. This work is based on the International Society of Automation Standard (ISA-S95). A fully automated data management system has been designed and implemented to control data follow between shop floor e.g. (machines and operators) and management floor e.g. (production

Artificial Intelligence
Circuit Theory and Applications
Mechanical Design
Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness

Implementation of PID Controller with PSO Tuning for Autonomous Vehicle

In the use of automatic control and its optimization methods, this research discusses how Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller is used to provide a smooth auto-parking for an electrical autonomous car. Different tuning methods are shown, discussed, and applied to the system looking forward to enhancing its performance. Time domain specifications are used as a criterion of comparison between tuning methods in order to select the best tuning method to the system with a proper cost function. Results show that Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) method gives the best results according

Energy and Water
Circuit Theory and Applications
Mechanical Design
Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness