Avec la demande toujours croissante d'énergie à laquelle l’homme fait face, le photovoltaïque (PV), qui convertit le rayonnement solaire en électricité, a connu ces dernières décennies un développement important. Bien que le marché PV actuel soit principalement dominé par les technologies à base de Si cristallin, la technologie PV à base de couches minces porte toujours l'espoir de contribuer efficacement à l'avenir vis-à-vis de la crise énergétique en raison de son coût beaucoup plus faible et d'une efficacité raisonnable.Les matériaux transparents conducteurs (TCM), principalement des oxydes conducteurs transparents (TCO), sont une composante essentielle dans la plupart des types de cellules solaires à couches minces car ils servent d'électrode de collecte des porteurs photo-générés sur la face avant de la cellule, c’est-à-dire celle face au soleil. Afin d'améliorer l'absorption optique (limitée par l'épaisseur de l'absorbeur) dans des cellules solaires à couches minces, on souhaite souvent que les TCO soient texturés (avec une rugosité de surface significative) de manière à bien diffuser la lumière, et ainsi de présenter des valeurs élevées de facteur de diffusion de la lumière. Ce dernier, que l’on peut appeler facteur de haze, est défini comme le rapport entre la transmittance (respectivement réflectance) diffuse et la transmittance (respectivement réflectance) totale. Plus ce facteur est élevé plus le TCO diffuse la lumière. Par voie de conséquence, la longueur du trajet optique est augmentée et ainsi le piégeage de la lumière dans la cellule solaire est amélioré, donnant lieu à une absorption de lumière plus importante dans les couches actives et augmentant potentiellement le rendement de conversion photovoltaïque des cellules solaires.Dans ce travail, des nano-composites innovants à base de SnO2 dopé au fluor (FTO) en combinaison avec les nanoparticules ZnO, S:TiO2 et Al2O3 ont été développés en utilisant un processus économique et facile constitué de deux étapes. Ces nano-composites à base de FTO présentent une transmittance totale de 70-80% et une résistance de 10-15 Ohm/sq, satisfaisant ainsi aux exigences requises pour des oxydes transparents conducteurs utilisés au sein de dispositifs photovoltaïques. En modifiant la concentration de la suspension de nanoparticules le facteur de haze de ces nano-composites peut être varié, de manière contrôlée, de presque 0% à 80%. Les propriétés morphologiques, structurales, électriques et optiques de ces nano-composites à base de FTO sont étudiées en détail et elles apparaissent étroitement dépendantes des nanoparticules sous-jacentes. Avant de discuter de l'intégration des nano-composites FTO au sein de cellules solaires, des efforts ont également été consacrés à une bonne compréhension de l'interface FTO/TiO2 qui est couramment présente au sein de divers types de cellules solaires à couches minces émergentes telles que les cellules solaires sensibilisées au colorant (DSSCs). Enfin, les nano-composites FTO diffusants ont été intégrés comme électrodes transparentes au sein de différents types de cellules solaires à couches minces et l'effet du facteur de haze sur la performance du dispositif a été étudié.En ajustant correctement le type et la concentration des nanoparticules sous-jacentes, les propriétés des nano-composites à base de FTO peuvent être variées de manière à répondre aux exigences d'électrodes pour une technologie photovoltaïque spécifique. Notre concept de préparation du TCO nano-composite en combinant les TCO et les nanoparticules propose une ligne directrice générale qui conduit à l’élaboration d’électrodes à caractère diffusant variable; permettant ainsi une bonne absorption des photons pour le photovoltaïque en couches minces. / With the increasing demand for energy that human beings are faced with, the photovoltaics (PV) technology which converts solar radiation into electricity has undergone increasingly development. Although the current PV market is mainly dominated by the crystalline Si based technologies, thin film PV still bears the hope to become the solution to the energy crisis in the future due to its much lower cost and reasonable efficiency.Transparent conductive materials (TCMs), mostly transparent conductive oxides (TCOs), are an essential component in most types of thin film solar cells as the current-collecting electrode on the sun-facing side of the cell. In order to improve the optical absorption (which is restricted by the limited absorber thickness) in thin film solar cells, the TCOs are often desired to be textured (with significant surface roughness) to show high values of haze factor. Haze factor is defined as the ratio of the diffuse transmittance/reflectance to the total transmittance/reflectance. The hazier a TCO is (i.e. with higher haze factor), the more light it scatters. As a consequence, the optical path length is increased and thus the light trapping in the solar cell is improved, giving rise to higher light absorption in the active layers and photon-to-current conversion efficiency of the solar cells.In this work, innovative nanocomposites of fluorine doped SnO2 (FTO) in combination with ZnO, S:TiO2 and Al2O3 nanoparticles have been developed using an economic and facile 2-step process. These FTO nanocomposites exhibit 70-80% total transmittance and 10-15 Ohm/sq sheet resistance, satisfying the basic requirements as transparent conductive oxides used in photovoltaics devices. By changing the nanoparticle suspension concentration, the haze factor of these nanocomposites can be varied, in a controlled way, from almost 0% up to 80%. The morphological, structural, electrical, and optical properties of these FTO nanocomposites are investigated in great details and are found to be closely related to the underlying nanoparticles. Before discussing the integration of the FTO nanocomposites into real solar cell devices, efforts have also been made to shed some light on the understanding of FTO/TiO2 interface commonly adopted in various types of emerging thin film solar cells such as dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Finally, the hazy FTO nanocomposites have been used as transparent electrodes in different types of thin film solar cells and the effect of haze factor on the device performance has been examined.By properly tuning the type and concentration of the underlying nanoparticles, the properties of the FTO nanocomposites can be tuned to meet the electrode requirement for specific photovoltaic technology. Our concept of preparing TCO nanocomposite by combining TCOs and nanoparticles provides a general guideline to design hazy electrodes as light management structures in thin film photovoltaics.

Obesity is a frequent metabolic disease that causes many other health and socioeconomic complications. Obesity arises due to excessive energy intake and decrease in energy expenditure, which is a conseqence of contemporary lifestyle. Moreover, obesity has a strong genetic component. Common obesity is polygenic, multifactorial disease, in which individual genes interact with each other and with environmental factors. Genome-wide association studies, conducted between 2006-09, led to the discovery of dozens of gene loci that predispose individuals to obesity. The strongest signals were registered for polymorphisms in FTO (fat mass and obesity-associated) and near a gene MC4R (melanocortin 4 receptor). However, the contributions of these variations on the phenotype of obesity are very small, therefore, it is necessary to validate the results of such robust studies. It is very important to uncover the effects of genetic variants for understanding the molecular mechanisms of energy metabolism. The studies presented in this thesis refer about the impact of polymorphisms in selected genes on anthropometric and metabolic parameters of the patients of the Institute of Endocrinology and of healthy volunteers who underwent functional tests. Our cohort includes a representative sample of Czech children (COPAT...

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most ubiquitous post-transcriptional RNA modification and has an important role in determining the fate of mRNA transcripts. Among the key proteins of the m6A pathway are methyltransferases (METTL family enzymes), demethylases (FTO, ALKBH family enzymes), and m6A binding proteins (e.g., YTHDF family) which recognize RNA sequences depending on the amount and localization of m6A in target transcripts and subsequently influence the fate of mRNA transcripts. The role of methyltransferases and demethylases is to provide a dynamic balance of m6A levels and possibly to convey mechanisms of specificity for these so-called epitranscriptomic marks, which are not yet fully understood. The main objective of this work was to determine the relative changes in the expression of key m6A pathway proteins during early postnatal development and adulthood in the rat brain. We found that the level of expression of key m6A pathway proteins decreases from birth to adulthood, with the exception of a transient increase between postnatal days 10 and 18. During this period, we also found significant changes in the expression of respiratory chain complexes. However, further research is needed to provide evidence of a mechanistic link between the m6A pathway and brain energy homeostasis during...

Over the last few years, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been used to identify numerous obesity associated SNPs in the human genome. By using linkage studies, candidate obesity genes have been identified. When SNPs in the first intron of FTO were found to be associated to BMI, it became the first gene to be linked to common obesity. In order to look for causative explanations behind the associated SNPs, a re-sequencing of FTO had been performed on the SOLiD sequencing platform. In-house candidate gene, SLCX, was also sequenced in order to evaluate a potential obesity association. The purpose of this project was to analyse the sequences and also to evaluate the quality of the SOLiD sequencing. A part of the project consisted in performing PCRs and selecting genomic regions for future sequencing projects. I developed and implemented a sequence analysis strategy to identify obesity associated SNPs. I found 39 obesity-linked SNPs in FTO, a majority of which were located in introns 1 and 8. I also identified 3 associated intronic SNPs in SLCX. I found that the SOLiD sequencing coverage varies between non-repetitive and repetitive genomic regions, and that it is highest near amplicon ends. Interestingly, coverage varies significantly between different amplicons even after repetitive sequences have been removed, which indicates that it is affected by features inherent to the sequence. Still, the observed allele frequencies for known SNPs were highly correlated with the SNP frequencies documented in HapMap. In conclusion, I verify that SNPs in FTO are associated with obesity and also identify a previously unassociated gene, SLCX, as a potential obesity gene. Re-sequencing of genomic regions on the SOLiD platform was proven to be successful for SNP identification, although the difference in sequencing coverage might be problematic.

Submitted by Automa??o e Estat?stica (sst@bczm.ufrn.br) on 2016-02-22T21:55:16Z No. of bitstreams: 1 JoseCesarAugustoDeQueiroz_DISSERT.pdf: 11090566 bytes, checksum: 538148e21b61bcc8bb2deea11aad91bd (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Arlan Eloi Leite Silva (eloihistoriador@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-02-24T20:09:42Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 JoseCesarAugustoDeQueiroz_DISSERT.pdf: 11090566 bytes, checksum: 538148e21b61bcc8bb2deea11aad91bd (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-02-24T20:09:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JoseCesarAugustoDeQueiroz_DISSERT.pdf: 11090566 bytes, checksum: 538148e21b61bcc8bb2deea11aad91bd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-13 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico - CNPq / No in?cio do s?culo XX revestimentos superficiais ou filmes finos, eram materiais que despertavam interesses unicamente em aplica??es ?ticas. Esses filmes tinham uma participa??o meramente utilit?ria, onde necessitava apenas da medida da espessura do mesmo e suas propriedades ?ticas. Com o crescimento exponencial do emprego de filmes finos em microeletr?nica, criou-se a necessidade de compreender a natureza intr?nseca dos filmes. Em 1907 foi publicado o primeiro estudo sobre um filme fino transparente e condutor para a luz vis?vel. Tais propriedades foram observadas em filmes de ?xido de c?dmio (CdO) obtidos por pulveriza??o cat?dica seguida de oxida??o t?rmica. Ao passar do tempo, outros filmes como ZnO, SnO2, In2O3 e suas ligas tamb?m foram classificadas como TCO (?xidos Condutores Transparentes). Atualmente o campo de aplica??o de tais filmes ? amplo e compreende setores como mostradores eletr?nicos de cristais l?quidos, eletrodos transparentes usados em eletroqu?mica, janelas inteligentes refletoras de radia??o no infravermelho, coletor solar plano, camada anti-refletoras para c?lulas solares, transistores e camadas passivadoras de superf?cies de dispositivos semicondutores. Neste trabalho estudou-se a propriedades ?ticas e el?tricas de filmas de SnO2:F (di?xido de Estanho dopado com Fl?or) para aplica??es fotovoltaicas, variando a temperatura de sinteriza??o do filmes (500, 550 e 600?C) e a quantidade do agente dopante (NH4F) na solu??o. Os filmes foram depositados via deposi??o qu?mica de vapor, por spray, e caracterizados por Difra??o de raios-X, Transmit?ncia e reflet?ncia, resistividade e condut?ncia. Como resultados pode-se destacar que para filmes sintetizados a temperaturas mais altas tem estruturas mais cristalinas, a cristalinidade dos filmes ? diretamente proporcional a sua resistividade e que para maiores concentra??es de agente dopante tem-se uma diminui??o na resistividade dos filmes.

KRIŠTŮFEK, T. The Concept of Training for a Qualification CPL(H): Master´s Thesis. Brno: VUT Brno – Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Aerospace Engineering, 2013, 58 p. Supervisor: Mgr. Hammer, J. This master´s thesis deals with flight training to obtain the qualification CPL(H). In the introduction part of this thesis are specified the requirements for obtaining this qualification and there is a description of the type of modular flight training. Other chapters are focused on the type rating for helicopters, the use of helicopter simulators and the choice of an appropriate flight training school. There is also a list of helicopter flight schools, including an overview of helicopters which are used in the Czech Republic. The final chapter is consisted of the financial analysis of the flight modular training at flight schools and evaluation of this analysis, the possibility of providing loans and credits. There is an overview of the total costs for the qualification of the commercial helicopter pilot.

Aim of this thesis was to observe changes in oxidative metabolism and expression of important neuroenergetic proteins in human neuroblastoma cell line SH-SY5Y due to inhibition of FTO. FTO is a RNA demethylase that uses N6-methyladenosine as substrate. Differences in enzyme expression are connected to broad area of effects involving energy homeostasis. Mitochondria are cellular powerhouses, a key elements in production of energy and metabolic substrates, yet a source of potentially dangerous reactive oxygen species (ROS) and analogous reactive molecules. In order to better understand FTO purpose in neuronal energetic metabolism, we examined mitochondrial respiratory chain. Using high-resolution respirometry we were capable of observing impairment in mitochondrial respiration after FTO inhibition. There was considerable decline in endogenous respiration, maximal respiration rate and reserve capacity. In order to obtain more detailed view into mitochondrial respiration, expression levels of electron-transport complexes were quantified by Western blot technique. Slight reduction was identified in subunits of complex I and IV. However, the most prominent alteration was seen in complex II subunit. There were no differences in expression of complex III and ATP synthase subunits. Beside disrupted activity...

Variants (such as rs9939609) in the fat mass- and obesity-associated (FTO) gene have been associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and alcohol consumption. This study tested the associations of 167 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within FTO gene with alcohol dependence (AD) using two Caucasian samples: the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) sample (660 AD cases and 400 controls) and the Study of Addiction: Genetics and Environment (SAGE) sample (623 cases and 1,016 controls). Logistic regression analysis of AD as a binary trait was performed using the PLINK software. For the SAGE sample, the top three SNPs showing associations with AD were rs8062891, rs1108086, and rs1420318 (p = 0.00088, 0.00086 and 0.00086, respectively). Two SNPs (rs12597786 and rs7204609) associated with AD in the SAGE sample (p = 0.017 and 0.034, respectively) were replicated in the COGA sample (p = 0.017 and 0.014, respectively). Through meta-analysis of two samples using PLINK, the top three SNPs associated with AD were rs8062891, rs12597786, and rs7204609 (p = 0.00064, 0.00076 and 0.0011, respectively). Haplotype analysis in the SAGE sample further supported the associations with AD in single-marker analysis. In addition, we found association of rs17817449 (which has a strong linkage disequilibrium with rs9939609) with AD in the SAGE sample (p = 0.00339). The findings provide evidence of joint intervention and prevention of AD and obesity.

Variants (such as rs9939609) in the fat mass- and obesity-associated (FTO) gene have been associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and alcohol consumption. This study tested the associations of 167 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within FTO gene with alcohol dependence (AD) using two Caucasian samples: the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) sample (660 AD cases and 400 controls) and the Study of Addiction: Genetics and Environment (SAGE) sample (623 cases and 1,016 controls). Logistic regression analysis of AD as a binary trait was performed using the PLINK software. For the SAGE sample, the top three SNPs showing associations with AD were rs8062891, rs1108086, and rs1420318 (p = 0.00088, 0.00086 and 0.00086, respectively). Two SNPs (rs12597786 and rs7204609) associated with AD in the SAGE sample (p = 0.017 and 0.034, respectively) were replicated in the COGA sample (p = 0.017 and 0.014, respectively). Through meta-analysis of two samples using PLINK, the top three SNPs associated with AD were rs8062891, rs12597786, and rs7204609 (p = 0.00064, 0.00076 and 0.0011, respectively). Haplotype analysis in the SAGE sample further supported the associations with AD in single-marker analysis. In addition, we found association of rs17817449 (which has a strong linkage disequilibrium with rs9939609) with AD in the SAGE sample (p = 0.00339). The findings provide evidence of joint intervention and prevention of AD and obesity.

No description available.