Grain boundary and Se diffusion investigations in CdSe-CdTe thin-film photovoltaics

Cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells are a very attractive thin-film photovoltaic technology because of low-cost manufacturing and high light absorption coefficient. Electron hole pairs generated by photons absorbed in the solar cell have a finite lifetime, due to radiative or nonradiative recombination processes. One path towards increasing the efficiency of CdTe solar cells is to minimise non-radiative recombination at grain boundaries. This work aims to com bine cathodoluminescence (CL) contrast (optoelectrical properties) and electron backscatter diffraction (structure properties) to investigate the effect of grain boundary misorientation on non-radiative recombination. At the range between 35°-55° misorientation angle, the CL contrast was significantly high, which indicates that those regular grain boundaries are strong non-radiative recombination centres. For coincident site lattices (CSL) such as Σ3, Σ5, Σ7 and Σ9 which have high symmetry, the CL contrast was much smaller, which means those special grain boundaries are not harmful to the device. The reduced recombination velocity was also measured, and the results shown to be consistent with the contrast measurements. Se diffusion from CdSe to CdTe by using standard and bevel cross-sections has also been investigated for two samples with different external quantum efficiency (EQE) and thicknesses (i.e. 100 and 400 nm) of the CdSe layer. The results showed that both devices have voids at the inter-diffusion layer, although for the 400 nm CdSe sample voids were more numerous. Rapid diffusion of Se along the CdTe grain boundaries led to small grains at the interface region, due to Kirkendall voids and solute pinning of the grain boundaries, which resulted in a lower EQE for the 400 nm CdSe device. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) diffraction patterns confirmed a zinc blende cubic structure throughout the absorber layer, which suggests that the lower EQE is not due to a change in the crystal structure, as has previously been reported in the literature. The Se diffusion coefficient is calculated using scanning TEM energy dispersive X-ray (EDX). The diffusion coefficient measured is 7.2×10−12 cm2/s, which is an order of magnitude smaller than the literature value

Why So Cynical? The Effect of Job Burnout as a Mediator on the Relationship Between Perceived Organizational Support and Organizational Cynicism

The current study represents a noteworthy step towards a better understanding of how perceived organizational support influences burnout and cynicism of healthcare staff. It explores whether perceived organizational support reduces job burnout and organizational cynicism and whether job burnout plays a mediating role in the relationship between POS and organizational cynicism. Data were collected from 211 personnel working in the healthcare industry in Saudi Arabia. Findings indicate that a high level of perceived organizational support ameliorates the experienced burnout symptoms, and allay cynical attitudes, emotions, and behaviors at work. The study also unfolds that burnout is mediating the relationship between POS and organizational cynicism, which highlights the importance of properly managing burnout. The study suggested that healthcare organizations should imperatively provide the necessary organizational support wherever and whenever it is needed and utilize the appropriate interventions to minimize the effects of burnout and cynicism. This is the first study that analyzed the impact of POS on organizational cynicism through the mediating variable of job burnout, and the first paper that investigates POS, organizational cynicism, and job burnout of healthcare staff in a single study. It adds to the growing body of literature on antecedents of organizational cynicism, job burnout, and POS as a mean to reduce negative workplace phenomena. Keywords: perceived organizational support, job burnout, organizational cynicism, social exchange theory, job demand model, healthcare industry, healthcare staff. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/13-7-04 Publication date: April 30th 202

Which one is better: presentation-based or content-based math search?

Mathematical content is a valuable information source and retrieving this content has become an important issue. This paper compares two searching strategies for math expressions: presentation-based and content-based approaches. Presentation-based search uses state-of-the-art math search system while content-based search uses semantic enrichment of math expressions to convert math expressions into their content forms and searching is done using these content-based expressions. By considering the meaning of math expressions, the quality of search system is improved over presentation-based systems

A Corpus-Driven Investigation of Translator Style: A Study of Humphrey Davies’ Arabic-English Translations of Midaq Alley and The Yacoubian Building

The aim of this study is to isolate the individual stylistic traits of one translator, Humphrey Davies, within the framework of descriptive translation studies. Davies’ English translation of the Arabic novel Midaq Alley is compared, using a corpus-driven approach based on keyword lists, to another English translation of the same source text by another translator, Trevor Legassick. By making this initial corpus-driven comparison and subsequently generating a keyword list for Davies’ Midaq Alley, the stylistic features regarded as indicative of the translator style and meriting further investigation declared themselves and, accordingly, hypotheses regarding Davies’ translator style were constructed and then tested by carrying out a thorough corpus-based investigation. A consistent pattern of choices was identified in the translation of four types of words: culture-specific items, including culture-specific common expressions and proper nouns; terms of respect; reporting verbs and function words, including the contraction ‘’d’ and ‘that’ as complementizer, relativizer, demonstrative pronoun and demonstrative determiner. For lexical words, the results show that Davies’ tends to transliterate foreign words and supplement them with extratextual gloss, reproduces the structures of proper nouns, preserves the terms of respect by literal translation and translates literally the reporting verbs. Regarding function words, Davies tends to make heavy use of contractions and all types of ‘that’. Generally, the findings show that Davies stays close to the source text compared to Legassick who moves much further from the source text. The identified stylistic features are investigated in Davies’ English translation of another Arabic novel (The Yacoubian Building) to check whether these features are stable across one of his other translations. The findings show that most of the features revealed through the comparison of Davies to Legassick are stable across the Davies’ two translations. Despite limitations, it is anticipated that the approach developed in this study will be fruitfully adapted for further rigorous and replicable analysis of translator style

Extensor indicis proprius to extensor pollicis longus tendon transfer with first dorsal interossei muscle flap cover for reconstruction of post traumatic thumb defect in an acute setting: a very rare case report

The thumb plays a vital role in the function of the hand and is indispensable part of gripping, pinching and other activities and therefore its reconstruction is a priority for every hand surgeon. Different flaps have been used in the soft tissue reconstruction of the thumb. Here we presented a 38 year male patient case of road traffic accident with trauma to the right upper limb having composite tissue defect involving the thumb with loss over the dorsum of the thumb with periosteal stripping and partial loss of the dorsal cortex of the metacarpal in which we have successfully performed thumb reconstruction in acute setting by doing extensor indicis proprius (EIP) to extensor pollicis longus (EPL) tendon transfer for the extensor tendon loss and soft tissue cover by using the ulnar head of first dorsal interossei muscle with overlying split thickness skin graft. EIP to EPL transfer is an efficient tendon transfer to restore the thumb extension in post-traumatic extensor loss of thumb without any functional donor site morbidity. First dorsal interossei muscle is a good and reliable reconstructive option for the small full thickness soft tissue defects over the first metacarpal first because of its axial blood supply. We recommend to divide the extensor indicis proprius tendon around half centimetre proximal to the extensor hood and suture this tendon remnant to the side by extensor digiti communis tendon  while maintaining the finger extension and for the first dorsal interossei muscle flap preferably use the ulnar head of muscle for thumb reconstruction to avoid functional donor site morbidities

Integration of Distributed Generations in Smart Distribution Networks Using Multi-Criteria Based Sustainable Planning Approach

Energy planning has become more complicated in the 21st century of sustainable development due to the inclusion of numerous standards such as techno-economic, and environmental considerations. This paper proposes multi-criteria sustainable planning (MCSP) based optimization approach for identifying DGs’ optimal allocations and rating powers. The main objectives of this paper are the reduction of the network’s total power loss, voltage profile improvement, energy loss saving maximization, and curtailing environmental emissions and water consumption to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 3, 6, 7, 13, and 15) by taking the constraints into consideration. Different alternatives are evaluated across four aspects of performance indices; technical, cost-economic, environmental, and social (TEES). In terms of TEES performance evaluations, various multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approaches are used to determine the optimal trade-off among the available solutions. These methods are gaining wide acceptance due to their flexibility while considering all criteria and objectives concurrently. Annual energy loss saving is increased by 97.13%, voltage profile is improved to 0.9943 (p.u), and emissions are reduced by 82.45% using the proposed technique. The numerical results of the proposed MCSP approach are compared to previously published works to validate and may be used by researchers and energy planners as a planning tool for ADN schemes

A Survey on Retrieval of Mathematical Knowledge

We present a short survey of the literature on indexing and retrieval of mathematical knowledge, with pointers to 72 papers and tentative taxonomies of both retrieval problems and recurring techniques.Comment: CICM 2015, 20 page

Preferential Solvation Study of the Synthesized Aldose Reductase Inhibitor (SE415) in the {PEG 400 (1) + Water (2)} Cosolvent Mixture and GastroPlus-Based Prediction

This article presents evidence that the binary cosolvent system can be a promising approach for enhanced oral absorption in controlling diabetes mellitus (DM) and associated complications in humans

Towards Constraining Glacial Isostatic Adjustment in Greenland Using ICESat and GPS Observations

Constraining glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) i.e. the Earth’s viscoelastic response to past ice changes, is an important task, because GIA is a significant correction in gravity-based ice sheet mass balance estimates. Here, we investigate how temporal variations in the observed and modeled crustal displacements due to the Earth’s response to ongoing ice mass changes can contribute to the process of constraining GIA. We use mass change grids of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) derived from NASA’s high resolution Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) data in three overlapping time spans covering the period 2004–2009 to estimate temporal variations in the elastic response due to present day ice mass loss. The modeled crustal displacements (elastic + GIA) are compared with GPS time series from five permanent sites (KELY, KULU, QAQ1, THU2, and SCOR). We find, that the modeled pattern of elastic crustal displacements shows pronounced variation during the observation period, where an increase in elastic displacement is found at the northwest coast of Greenland, while a decrease is found at the southeast coast. This pattern of temporal changes is supported by the GPS observations. We find, that the temporal behavior of the ICESat-based modeled elastic response agrees well with the GPS observations at the sites KELY, QAQ1, and SCOR. This suggests, that our elastic models are able to resolve the temporal changes in the observed uplift, which indicates that the elastic uplift models are reliable at these sites. Therefore, we conclude that these sites are useful for constraining GIA