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The disputes over imperial succession in the Yuan dynasty were an important factor in its decline and fall. Among these disputes, the succession of Yuan Chengzong ... (r. 1294-1307) deserves special attention. Chengzong was the first emperor to succeed after Shizu ... (r. 1260-1294) declared the dynastic name Da Yuan ... (Great Yuan), and he was also the first descendant of Jingim ... to take control of the throne. This paper re-examines several indicative political events before the succession of Chengzong, including the political storm caused by the death of Jingim, the tendency of Jingim's sons to become designated as heirs, the formation of Chengzong's ascendancy and the process of his accession to the throne. It also discusses the rise, fall and reorganization of political forces during Shizu's reign as seen in the above events, especially the political role played by Jingim's widow, Kökejin .... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the fabrication of a robust and flexible transparent electrode to replace costly and fragile indium tin oxide (ITO) used in flexible Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells, composed of an aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO)/Ag-nanowires/aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) (AAA herein) sandwich structure. The Ag-NWs networks form low-resistance, long-range pathways throughout the electrode that are able to maintain efficient charge carrier collection and extraction after strenuous mechanical bending. The improved durability of the AAA electrode enables our CIGS solar cells to maintain ∼95% of their initial power conversion efficiency, following 1000 bending cycles. In comparison, devices fabricated using AZO and ITO electrodes are only able to maintain ∼57 and ∼5%, respectively, due to crack formation and delamination of the films. This AAA sandwich structure electrode could therefore serve as a high-performance electrode for numerous flexible optoelectronic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A facile wet soaking process by immersing a CIGS thin film in a mixed aqueous solution, containing gallium trichloride and thioacetamide at 80 °C for a few tens of seconds, was proposed to reduce the existence of defects in the CIGS absorption layer which can be confirmed by the temperature dependence of the open-circuit voltage (Voc). The depth profiles of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results indicate that the gallium (Ga) concentration increases during the short wet soaking time, resulting in a widening of the band gap near the surface region. The enhanced carrier lifetime attributed to the Ga-induced defect reduction during thermal treatment of device fabrication was evaluated by time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) spectroscopy. With wet and light soaking processes, Voc, short circuit current (Jsc) and fill factor (F.F.) can be increased, yielding a significant enhancement in cell efficiency from ∼1% to ∼6.4%. We believe that this fast, simple and effective method can further stimulate the development of CBD-Zn(O,S)/post-selenization CIGS solar cells toward commercialized thin film photovoltaics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Johnson (1970) obtained expansions for marginal posterior distributions through Taylor expansions. Here, the posterior expansion is expressed in terms of the likelihood and the prior together with their derivatives. Recently, Weng (2010) used a version of Stein's identity to derive a Bayesian Edgeworth expansion, expressed by posterior moments. Since the pivots used in these two articles are the same, it is of interest to compare these two expansions. We found that ourO(t−1/2) term agrees with Johnson's arithmetically, but theO(t−1) term does not. The simulations confirmed this finding and revealed that ourO(t−1) term gives better performance than Johnson's. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spirit halls of imperial temples in the Yuan dynasty were almost all located in the capital area. The Great Tianyuan Yansheng Temple was one of them. An important temple of the middle and late periods of the Yuan dynasty, it set up spirit halls for emperors Xianzong and Mingzong and their empresses. Records pertinent to the temple are sketchy and often contradictory, making it difficult to confirm its exact location. This paper consults a wide variety of historical materials and research findings, and argues that the Great Tianyuan Yansheng Temple and the Great Tianyuan Yanshou Temple were two different temples, both located in the capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between Mongolian and Han Chinese culture in the Yuan dynasty has been studied by many scholars. However, few have examined the cultural proclivities of the Mongolian royal women at the Yuan court. Dagi (?-1322), mother of the Yuan emperor Wuzong (r. 1307-1311) and Renzong (r. 1311-1320), played an important role in mid-Yuan politics. In the past, scholars had considered that Dagi, embedded with strong nomadic consciousness, was a representative of the Mongolian conservative nobility and promoter of their interests. This evaluation needs deliberation. The present paper reexamines Dagi's attitude towards Han Chinese culture; the study shows that Dagi had a few accomplishments in Chinese culture, and she was definitely not an outsider. She was friendly to the Han literati, was fond of Chinese paintings, and showed some familiarity with Chinese ancient books. Dagi's political role in the mid-Yuan period needs further research, but it is certain we cannot partially generalize on the basis of Mongolian-Han Chinese ideological and cultural differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasmonic resonance effect triggered by gold nanoparticles (NPs) is utilized to enhance light harvesting in different types of thin‐film solar cells. However, there is no report using the plasmonic resonance effect triggered by metal NPs in chalcopyrite absorber‐based devices because of the high reactivity between the metal NPs and indium/copper/gallium during the required high‐temperature selenization process. In this work, Au NPs encapsulated by a thin protective silicon oxide shell in the chalcopyrite absorber‐based solar cells deposited by scalable solution deposition techniques under the 600 °C selenization process are demonstrated. The increased scattering and surface plasmonic resonance induced field generated by the nanoparticles can lead to significant enhancement in light absorption and charge carrier generation across a broad spectral range. Enhanced power conversion efficiency in solution‐processed rigid CuIn(S,Se)2 from 1.95 to 2.26% and flexible Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells from 9.28% to 10.88% is achieved after the addition of plasmonic Au‐SiO2 core‐shell NPs in the absorber layer. This work demonstrates a facile method for chalcopyrite solar cell enhancement, which is compatible with low‐cost and high‐throughput manufacturing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fabrication of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells on flexible substrates is a non-trivial task due to thermal and ion diffusion related issues. In order to circumvent these issues, we have developed a chemical-mechanical polishing lift-off (CMPL) transfer process, enabling the direct transfer of CIGS solar cells from conventional soda-lime glass (SLG) onto arbitrary flexible substrates up to 4 cm(2) in size. The structural and compositional nature of the pre- and post-transferred films is examined using electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy. We demonstrate the fabrication of solar cells on a range of flexible substrates while being able to maintain 75% cell efficiency (η) when compared to pre-transferred solar cells. The results obtained in this work suggest that our transfer process offers a highly promising approach toward large scale fabrication of CIGS-based solar cells on a wide variety of flexible substrates, suitable for use in the large scale CIGS photovoltaic industry.

Defect control in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) materials, no matter what the defect type or density, is a significant issue, correlating directly to PV performance. These defects act as recombination centers and can be briefly categorized into interface recombination and Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombination, both of which can lead to reduced PV performance. Here, we introduce an electrochemical passivation treatment for CIGS films that can lower the oxygen concentration at the CIGS surface as observed by X-ray photoelectron spectrometer analysis. Temperature-dependent J-V characteristics of CIGS solar cells reveal that interface recombination is suppressed and an improved rollover condition can be achieved following our electrochemical treatment. As a result, the surface defects are passivated, and the power conversion efficiency performance of the solar cell devices can be enhanced from 4.73 to 7.75%.

The use of costly and rare metals such as indium and gallium in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) based solar cells has motivated research into the use of Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) as a suitable replacement due to its non-toxicity, abundance of compositional elements and excellent optical properties (1.5 eV direct band gap and absorption coefficient of ~10(4) cm(-1)). In this study, we demonstrate a one-step pulsed hybrid electrodeposition method (PHED), which combines electrophoretic and electroplating deposition to deposit uniform CZTS thin-films. Through careful analysis and optimization, we are able to demonstrate CZTS solar cells with the VOC, JSC, FF and η of 350 mV, 3.90 mA/cm(2), 0.43 and 0.59%, respectively.

A reactive mold-assisted chemical etching (MACE) process through an easy-to-make agarose stamp soaked in bromine methanol etchant to rapidly imprint larger area micro- and nanoarrays on CIGS substrates was demonstrated. Interestingly, by using the agarose stamp during the MACE process with and without additive containing oil and triton, CIGS microdome and microhole arrays can be formed on the CIGS substrate. Detailed formation mechanisms of microstructures and the chemical composition variation after the etching process were investigated. In addition, various microand nanostructures were also demonstrated by this universal approach. The microstructure arrays integrated into standard CIGS solar cells with thinner thickness can still achieve an efficiency of 11.22%, yielding an enhanced efficiency of ∼18% compared with that of their planar counterpart due to an excellent absorption behavior confirmed by the simulation results, which opens up a promising way for the realization of high-efficiency micro- or nanostructured thin-film solar cells. Finally, the complete dissolution of agarose stamp into hot water demonstrates an environmentally friendly method by the mold-assisted chemical etching process through an easy-to-make agarose stamp.

The formation steps of inclusion complex caused by co-grinding loratadine (LOR) and hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HP-beta-CD) with a molar ratio of 1:1 or 1:2 were quantitatively investigated by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy with curve-fitting analysis and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The phase solubility study and the co-evaporated solid products of the mixture of LOR and HP-beta-CD were also examined. The result indicates that the aqueous solubility of LOR was linearly increased with the increase of HP-beta-CD concentrations, in which the phase solubility diagram was classified as A(L) type. The higher apparent stability constant (2.22 x 10(4)M(-1)) reveals that the inclusion complex formed between LOR and HP-beta-CD was quite stable. The endothermic peak at 134.6 degrees C for the melting point of LOR gradually disappeared from DSC curves of LOR/HP-beta-CD coground mixtures by increasing the cogrinding time, as the disappearance of the co-evaporated solid products. The disappearance of this endothermic peak from LOR/HP-beta-CD coground mixture or the co-evaporated solid products was due to the inclusion complex formation between LOR and HP-beta-CD after cogrinding process or evaporation. Moreover, IR peaks at 1676 cm(-1) down-shifted from 1703 cm(-1) (CO stretching) and at 1235 cm(-1) upper-shifted from 1227 cm(-1) (C-O stretching) related to LOR in the inclusion complex were observed with the increase of cogrinding time, but the peak at 1646 cm(-1) due to O-H stretching of HP-beta-CD was shifted to 1640 cm(-1). The IR spectrum of 15 min-coground mixture was the same as the IR spectrum of the co-evaporated solid product, strongly indicating that the grinding process could cause the inclusion complex formation between LOR and HP-beta-CD. Three components (1700, 1676, and 1640 cm(-1)) and their compositions were certainly obtained in the 1740-1600 cm(-1) region of FTIR spectra for the LOR/HP-beta-CD coground mixture and the co-evaporated solid products by curve-fitting analysis. The component of 1700 cm(-1) detected was due to the un-included LOR in the inclusion complex. This implies that FTIR spectroscopy with curve-fitting analysis might be useful for discriminating the components and compositions in the inclusion complex., (Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the progressive processes of polymorphic transformation of different gabapentin (GBP) polymorphs by using hot-stage Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) microspectroscopy., Methods: Four polymorphs of GBP were previously prepared and then identified by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric (TG) analysis, FTIR microspectroscopy and X-ray powder diffractometry. A novel hot-stage FTIR microspectroscopic technique was used to investigate the progressive steps of polymorphic transformation of each GBP polymorph sealed within two pieces of KBr plates., Results: Four polymorphs (Forms I, II, III and IV) of GBP were well characterized. The GBP form I was proven to be a monohydrate, but other GBP forms II-IV were anhydrous. Different thermal-induced progressive processes and steps of polymorphic interconversion of GBP polymorphs were clearly found from the changes in the three-dimensional IR spectral contour and peak intensity by using hot-stage FTIR microspectroscopy. The results also indicate that GBP form I was dehydrated and transformed to form III, and then converted to form IV; whereas GBP forms II and III directly transformed to form IV during heating. The GBP form IV was the last polymorph before the intramolecular lactamization of GBP., Conclusion: A one-step novel hot-stage FTIR microspectroscopy was successfully applied to simultaneously and continuously investigate the progressive processes and steps of thermal-induced polymorphic interconversion of GBP polymorph in the solid state.