CuInSe2 (CISe) absorber layers for thin-film solar cells were fabricated through the selenization of amorphous Cu-In-S nanoparticles, which were prepared by using a low-temperature colloidal process within one minute without any external heating. Two strategies for obtaining highly dense CISe absorber films were used in this work; the first was the modification of nanoparticle surface through chelate complexation with ethanolamine, and the second strategy utilized the lattice expansion that occurred when S atoms in the precursor particles were replaced with Se during selenization. The synergy of these two strategies allowed formation of highly dense CISe thin films, and devices fabricated using the absorber layer demonstrated efficiencies of up to 7.94% under AM 1.5G illumination without an anti-reflection coating.

Background The prevalence of Tropheryma whipplei varies depending on age, region, and underlying disease. We estimated the prevalence of T. whipplei in the stools of Korean patients with diarrhea using real-time PCR (RT-PCR) and compared three RT-PCR targets, rpoB, hsp65, and Dig15. Methods A total of 1404 nucleic acid samples extracted from the stools of Korean patients with diarrhea were tested using an initial RT-PCR targeting T. whipplei-specific regions of 16S–23S rRNA intergenic spacer. Subsequently, the samples positive for the initial RT-PCR were tested using the follow-up RT-PCRs targeting rpoB, hsp65, and Dig15 and analyzed by sequencing to confirm the presence of T. whipplei. We estimated the prevalence of T. whipplei and compared them according to gender and age. We also compared the performance of three targets in the follow-up RT-PCRs. Results T. whipplei was detected in 1.4% of all samples (20 of 1404), and there were no differences according to gender and age. In pediatric samples (≤ 19 years), T. whipplei was detected higher in children aged 6–19 than in those aged 1–5 (2.7% vs. 0.7%, P = 0.01). Sensitivities of the rpoB, hsp65, and Dig15 RT-PCR were 50.0%, 85.0%, and 95.0%, respectively; specificities were 100.0%, 100.0%, and 84.6%, respectively. Conclusions This is the first study that estimated the prevalence of T. whipplei in the stools of Korean patients with diarrhea. This study demonstrated the presence of T. whipplei in stools of Koreans, even though the bacterium was detected low. The RT-PCRs targeting hsp65 and Dig15 showed reliable performance, and a multiplex PCR including these targets is expected to be useful for T. whipplei detection.

We have studied the polymerization kinetics of acrylamide in aqueous solution with potassium persulfate as an initiator by using quantitative real-time in situ IR spectroscopy and monitoring the profiles of peaks in the range 1900-850 cm -1 . The conversion of acrylamide was calculated from the disappearance of the peak at 988 cm -1 , which is the out-of-plane bending mode of the =C-H unit, normalized to the C=O stretching peak at 1675 cm -1 as an internal standard. For reaction temperatures in the range 40-65 o C and initiator and monomer concentrations of 0.9-2.6 mmol/L and 0.5-1.1 mol/L, respectively, we deduced that the rate of monomer consumption follows the relation R p = k[K 2 S 2 O 8 ] 0.5 [M] 1.35±0.10 . In addition, we obtained activation parameters from an evaluation of the kinetic data.

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