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Abstract. CUACE/Dust, an operational mesoscale sand and dust storm (SDS) forecasting system for East Asia, has been developed by online coupling a dust aerosol emission scheme and dust aerosol microphysics onto a regional meteorological model with improved advection and diffusion schemes and a detailed Northeast Asia soil erosion database. With improved initial dust aerosol conditions through a 3-DVar data assimilation system, CUACE/Dust successfully forecasted most of the 31 SDS processes in East Asia. A detailed comparison of the model predictions for the 8-12 March SDS process with surface network observations and lidar measurements revealed a robust forecasting ability of the system. The time series of the operationally forecasted dust concentrations for a number of representative stations for the whole spring 2006 (1 March-31 May) were evaluated against surface PM10 monitoring data, showing a good agreement in terms of the SDS timing and magnitudes at and near the source regions where dust aerosols dominate. For the operational forecasts of spring 2006 in East Asia, a TS (threat score) system evaluated the performance of CUACE/Dust against all available observations and rendered a spring averaged TS value of 0.31 for FT1 (24 h forecasts), 0.23 for FT2 (48 h forecasts) and 0.21 for FT3 (72 h forecasts).

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of diplomatic activities on outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). Design/methodology/approach -The paper first develops a set of hypotheses drawing insights from politics, international business and institutional theory. It then tests these hypotheses by estimation of Panel Corrected Standard Error models, using the data of Chinese OFDI flow to 131 countries over the period of 2003-2010. Findings -The main findings are: friendly bilateral diplomatic activities help OFDI in general; bilateral diplomatic activities provide effective support to some sensitive and important investments; and bilateral diplomatic activities play an important role in host countries where institutions are absent or poor in quality. Practical implications -Friendly bilateral diplomatic activities provide strong support to multinationals investing abroad. Originality/value -The paper incorporates a neglected but important factor, diplomacy, into a model to analyze its influences on OFDI. It investigates not only the direct impact of diplomatic activities on OFDI but also their moderating effect on other OFDI determinants, such as economic and institutional factors.

High efficiency and environmental stability are mandatory performance requirements for commercialization of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Herein, efficient centimeter-scale PSCs with improved stability were achieved by incorporating an additive-free 2,2′,7,7′-tetrakis­[N,N-di­(p-methoxyphenyl)­amino]-9,9′-spirobifluorene (spiro-OMeTAD) hole-transporting material (HTM) through simply substituting the usual chlorobenzene solvent with pentachloroethane (PC). A stabilized power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 16.1% under simulated AM 1.5G 1 sun illumination with an aperture of 1.00 cm2 was achieved for PSCs using an additive-free spiro-OMeTAD layer cast from PC. X-ray analysis suggested that chlorine radicals from PC transfer partially to spiro-OMeTAD and are retained in the HTM layer, resulting in conductivity improvement. Moreover, unencapsulated PSCs with a centimeter-scale active area cast from PC retained >70% of their initial PCE after ageing at 80 °C for 500 h, in contrast with less than 20% retention for control devices. Morphological and X-ray analyses of the aged cells revealed that the perovskite and HTM layers remain almost unchanged in the cells with a spiro-OMeTAD layer cast from PC whereas serious degradation occurred in the control cells. This study not only reveals the decomposition mechanism of PSCs in the presence of HTM additives but also opens up a broad range of organic semiconductors for radical doping.

Intra-industry trade, China, panel data,

Biomechanics of cerebral trauma attempts to delineate the dynamic response of the cranial vault contents to a direct or indirect impact to the head. Consequently, brain injury mechanisms and associated tolerance to impact can be deduced by establishing a relationship between neurological deficit and mechanical dosage. The resulting information is invaluable to brain injury prevention and diagnosis. This paper presents an overview of our recent research on head injury focusing on establishing brain injury biomechanics by developing a comprehensive and validated mathematical model. To achieve our goal, we developed a comprehensive three-dimensional finite element human head model, finite element porcine head models, and sensors to monitor head kinematics and brain strains by neutral density accelerometers. The information obtained from this research thus far provided a predictive and somewhat validated mathematical model of the head, which clearly shows a correspondence between brain mechanical response and experimentally observed injuries.