Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Youths' Public Facilities Use and Psychological Well-Being: A Mixed-Method Study.

In this study, we explored experiences and feelings of safety in public facilities in relation to psychological well-being among transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) youth in the Midwest in the summer of 2016, in the context of ongoing legislative proposals and regulations regarding school and public bathroom use in the United States. We used a mixed-method approach, with (1) a self-administered, paper-and-pencil survey of 120 TGNC youth, focusing on differences of self-esteem, resilience, quality of life (QoL), perceived stigma, feelings of safety, and experiences of public facility use and (2) two focus group interviews (=9) in which TGNC youth discussed individual perceptions, attitudes, and experiences of bathroom use outside participants' homes. The samples consisted predominantly of individuals assigned female at birth and currently of trans-masculine identity.

Employing Si solar cell technology to increase efficiency of ultra-thin Cu(In,Ga)Se solar cells.

Reducing absorber layer thickness below 500 nm in regular Cu(In,Ga)Se (CIGS) solar cells decreases cell efficiency considerably, as both short-circuit current and open-circuit voltage are reduced because of incomplete absorption and high Mo/CIGS rear interface recombination. In this work, an innovative rear cell design is developed to avoid both effects: a highly reflective rear surface passivation layer with nano-sized local point contact openings is employed to enhance rear internal reflection and decrease the rear surface recombination velocity significantly, as compared with a standard Mo/CIGS rear interface. The formation of nano-sphere shaped precipitates in chemical bath deposition of CdS is used to generate nano-sized point contact openings.

A detrimental reaction at the molybdenum back contact in Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 thin-film solar cells.

Experimental proof is presented for a hitherto undetected solid-state reaction between the solar cell material Cu(2)ZnSn(S,Se)(4) (CZTS(e)) and the standard metallic back contact, molybdenum. Annealing experiments combined with Raman and transmission electron microscopy studies show that this aggressive reaction causes formation of MoS(2) and secondary phases at the CZTS|Mo interface during thermal processing. A reaction scheme is presented and discussed in the context of current state-of-the-art synthesis methods for CZTS(e).

Two-tone optical heterodyne spectroscopy with a tunable lead-salt diode laser.

We report the demonstration of two-tone optical heterodyne spectroscopy with a tunable lead-salt diode laser. Using high-frequency modulation of the diode-laser injection current, we demonstrated a detection-sensitivity limit of 1 x 10(-5) to differential absorption from Doppler-broadened NH(3) lines in the 930-cm(-1) region. In our experiment, this limit was set by preamplifier noise and the low quantum efficiency of the photodetector.