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Evidence for the benefits of early palliative care (EPC) in patients with solid tumors is strong, but EPC has received scant attention in hematologic malignancies.To assess the benefits of outpatient-based EPC for symptom control in patients with multiple myeloma.Retrospective study of patients attending the Multiple Myeloma Palliative Care Clinic at our hospital in the year 2013 (February 1-December 31). The following symptoms were assessed at baseline and at three follow-up consultations using a Numerical Visual Scale (0 = no symptoms; 10 = worst possible): pain, anorexia, constipation, insomnia, nausea/vomiting, dyspnea, anxiety, and sadness. Physical and emotional symptom burden scores were calculated. Pain interference with general activity, sleep, and mood was also evaluated.About 67 patients were included. The proportion of patients reporting moderate-to-severe pain (Numerical Visual Scale ≥5) decreased significantly from baseline to the final follow-up: worst pain decreased from 57% to 18% (P 0.0001), whereas average pain fell from 24% to 2% (P 0.0001). The percentage of patients reporting no pain interference increased significantly from baseline: general activity (52% vs. 82%; P = 0.0001), sleep (73% vs. 91%; P = 0.01), and mood (52% vs. 87.5%; P = 0.0001). Physical and emotional symptom burden also improved, with significantly fewer patients reporting depression (13% vs. 5%; P = 0.001). Most patients (86.6%) were alive and still attending the Multiple Myeloma Palliative Care Clinic at study end.These findings indicate that EPC is feasible in patients with multiple myeloma. Pain and other symptoms were well controlled.

Thin film tandem solar cells based on amorphous and microcrystalline silicon (MicromorphTM in superstrate configuration) benefit from strongly light-scattering nano-textured substrates. A development methodology for the evaluation of the performance of the Micromorph test cells deposited on such substrates with very different surface shapes is presented and illustrated. It is shown that growth related defects and non-conformal coverage of the silicon layers restrict the choice of surface shapes for this photovoltaic application. General guidelines are given in this study for the preferred selection of the surface geometry for MicromorphTM test cells. The results indicate that the application of advanced surface shapes for higher conversion efficiencies requires improved silicon deposition process compared to current industrial state-of-the-art.

In this work, it is shown that variations in the ratio of oxygen to zinc precursors at constant temperature allow changing the surface morphology of zinc oxide (ZnO) films deposited by lowpressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, while keeping the sheet resistance and transparency of the layers constant. This allows developing ZnO layers combining interesting properties such as low surface roughness (below 15 nm) and low sheet resistance (below 15 O/&). More generally, it is shown that the pyramidal feature density can be controlled by tuning the precursor flows. This leads to film surfaces characterized by zones with a rough morphology mixed with zones with almost flat features. Therefore, by using this technique, the light-scattering ability of a film can be carefully tuned through its surface morphology without affecting the conductivity or transparency of the layer. This provides an efficient tool to optimize the front electrode of thin-film silicon solar cells to achieve the best possible combination of open-circuit voltage, fill factor and photo-generated current. The presented solution is an in-situ process achievable in standard deposition conditions making it easily up-scalable with existing production equipment.

High reflectivity is essential when a metal is used as back contact and reflector in thin film silicon solar cells. We show that thermal annealing at 150 °C improves the reflectivity of silver films deposited by sputtering at room temperature on nanotextured substrates. The annealing provokes two interlinked effects: rearrangement of the silver layer with a modification of its morphology and an increase of up to 42 in the grain size of the polycrystalline film for the preferential orientation as measured by X ray diffraction. The main consequence of these two mechanisms is a large increase in the reflectivity of silver when measured in air. This reflectivity increase is also noticeable in devices: amorphous silicon thin film solar cells grown on annealed silver films yield higher internal and external quantum efficiencies compared to cells grown on as deposited silver. The morphology modification smoothes down the substrate which is revealed by a clear increase of the open circuit voltage and fill factor of the cells grown on top. An amorphous silicon cell with a 200 nm nominally thick i layer fabricated on a flexible plastic substrate yielded an initial efficiency close to 10 with 15.9 mA/cm 2 of short circuit current using highly reflective annealed textured silver. We also propose for industrial purpose the sputtering of thin silver layer (120 nm) under moderate substrate temperature (~150 °C) to increase the layer reflectivity which avoids lengthening of the back reflector fabrication. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Drought is common in Mediterranean-type climates. Water stress can have serious physiological consequences for plant fitness. Here we analysed the response of two alien invasive species, Senecio inaequidens DC. and S. pterophorus DC., and one native non-invasive, Senecio malacitanus Huter, in terms of photosynthesis, water relations and growth. The proportional reduction in growth as a result of water stress was smaller in S. malacitanus, followed by S. inaequidens and finally S. pterophorus. Variations in relative growth rate were related to differences in unit leaf rates, which are strongly correlated with photosynthesis. At a similar level of leaf relative water content (RWC), photosynthesis in S. inaequidens and S. malacitanus did not differ, whereas it was lower in S. pterophorus. S. malacitanus started to show a reduction in RWC later than the other species. The hypothesis that alien invaders have greater physiological tolerance to drought than native non-invaders is not supported by our results since S. malacitanus showed a more adaptive response to drought than the aliens and was also the most resistant of the three species to water shortage. Differences in invasiveness would therefore be explained by a combination of traits, including establishment capacity, competitive capacity and drought resistance, among others.

Laser-controlled ablation of individual layers in glass/TCO/thin-film silicon/metal structures is essential for cell isolation and monolithic interconnection in thin-film silicon photovoltaic technologies. More recently, the potential application of laser scribing techniques for the development of photovoltaic matrix position sensors based on a-Si:H has generated much activity, requiring an excellent control in laser-generated patterns obtained by direct material ablation. This work is aimed to determine process parametric windows for a-Si:H thin-film ablation processes using UV ns laser sources in thin-film a-Si:H-based devices. The study is focussed on direct writing techniques using UV sources. We present ablation threshold measurements and process quality assessment using advanced optical microscopy techniques. Moreover only fully commercial laser sources in the ns regime has been used, bearing in mind that thin film based photovoltaic technologies are still demanding further reduction in production costs and, nowadays, ultrafast sources are beyond their scope both for the investment and running cost of those equipments.

A good way to check hypotheses explaining the invasion of ecosystems by exotic plants is to compare alien and native congeneric species. To test the hypothesis that invasive alien plants are more competitive than natives, we designed a replacement series experiment to evaluate interspecific competition between three Senecio species representing the same bushy life form: two alien species (S. inaequidens and S. pterophorus, both from South Africa) and a native species from the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula and Maghreb (S. malacitanus). While S. inaequidens is widespread throughout western Europe and is expanding towards the south of Spanish–French border, the geographical distribution of the recently introduced S. pterophorus is still limited to north-eastern Spain. Plants from each species were grown in pure and in mixed cultures with one of their congeners, and water availability was manipulated to evaluate the effects of water stress on competitive abilities. Our results show that the alien S. inaequidens is the most competitive species for all water conditions. The native S. malacitanus is more competitive that the alien S. pterophorus in water stress conditions, but this situation is reversed when water availability is not limiting.

The optical absorption of n-type (C 60 and PTCDA) and p-type (CuPc and pentacene) organic semiconductors is investigated by optical transmission and photothermal deflection spectroscopy. The usual absorption bands related to HOMO-LUMO transitions are observed in the high absorption region of transmission spectra. Photothermal deflection spectroscopy also evidences exponential absorption shoulders with characteristic energies 47 meV for CuPc, 38 meV for pentacene, 50 meV for PTCDA and 87 meV for C 60 . In addition, broad bands in the low absorption level are observed for C 60 and PTCDA. These bands have been attributed to contamination due to air exposure. On the other hand, in CuPc a clear absorption peak at 1.12 eV is observed with smaller features at 1.04 eV, 1.20 eV and 1.33 eV. These peaks are attributed to transitions between the Pc levels of CuPc ions. Finally, the optical absorption expected in blends of organic semiconductors is estimated by an effective media approximation.

Amorphous and nanocrystalline silicon films obtained by Hot-Wire Chemical Vapor Deposition have been incorporated as active layers in n-type coplanar top gate thin film transistors deposited on glass substrates covered with SiO 2 . Amorphous silicon devices exhibited mobility values of 1.3 cm 2 V − 1 s − 1 , which are very high taking into account the amorphous nature of the material. Nanocrystalline transistors presented mobility values as high as 11.5 cm 2 V − 1 s − 1 and resulted in low threshold voltage shift (∼ 0.5 V).

Light confinement strategies in thin-film silicon solar cells play a crucial role in the performance of the devices. In this work, the possible use of Ag-coated stamped polymers as reflectors to be used in n–i–p solar cells is studied. Different random roughnesses (nanometer and micrometer size) have been transferred on poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) by hot embossing. Morphological and optical analyses of masters, stamped polymers and reflectors have been carried out evidencing a positive surface transference on the polymer and the viability of a further application in solar cells.

Vegetation clearing is a fuel control technique used to reduce the risk of fires in fire-prone shrublands (e.g. Ulex parviflorus (gorse) shrublands). Nonetheless, its efficacy can be undermined as much by the reproductive strategies of the different species as by the structural organization of their phytomass. In our research we tested the hypothesis that effective control of Ulex parviflorus could be limited by the vertical dead/live shoot distribution and that this distribution could affect posterior growth. We applied clearing as a fuel-control technique in three juvenile shrublands. For the following 4 years, we studied the effects of this clearing application by measuring several structural variables of the individuals involved. At the end of the study we compared the structure of treated individuals with that of untreated ones. The clearing treatment eliminated only 46% of the population. The large dependence shown between cutting height and dead shoot height in relation to treatment effectiveness (individual mortality) suggests that applying the clearing treatment below the dead shoot level rather than above it would increase effectiveness considerably. In response to the loss of phytomass, the individuals that survived the clearing treatment increased their weight by a factor of 5 in the second year. This would explain the rapid re-establishment of the relation between phytomass and basal diameter after 2 years. Significantly larger values of phytomass and basal diameter showed a compensatory growth by the fourth year. These results show that clearing is not effective in young shrublands since it generates Ulex parviflorus-dominated shrublands in a short period of time. Temporal changes in the vertical dead/live shoot distribution are seen as a key morphological variable in the effectiveness of using clearing to control this species.

Resumen El carcinoma adrenocortical es un tumor infrecuente con una incidencia de 1 por millon de habitantes por ano. El 80% aproximadamente de estos carcinomas son funcionantes, representando los no funcionantes solo un 20% de los carcinomas comunicados en las mayores series de la literatura. Se trato de paciente masculino de 55 anos de edad con tumor adrenal derecho de 75×62 mm. La pieza quirurgica fue procesada para histologia e inmunohistoquimica convencional. El tumor estaba constituido por celulas redondeadas, eosinofilicas, dispuestas en sabanas y en trabeculas. Se observaron de 3–5 figuras de mitosis en 50 campos de gran aumento y se identifico invasion vascular y sinusoidal. Se evidencio la presencia de mielolipoma entremezclado con el tumor y en la periferia del mismo. Solo 5 casos de carcinoma adrenocortical y concomitante mielolipoma han sido descritos en la literatura medica. En nuestro conocimiento mielolipoma asociado con carcinoma adrenocortical no funcionante no ha sido descrito previamente.