The Electronic Structure of Co-Sputtered Zinc Indium Tin Oxide Thin Films

Zinc indium tin oxide (ZITO) transparent conductive oxide layers were deposited via radio frequency (RF) magnetron co-sputtering at room temperature. A series of samples with gradually varying zinc content was investigated. The samples were characterized with x-ray and ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (XPS, UPS) to determine the electronic structure of the surface. Valence and conduction bands maxima (VBM, CBM), and work function were determined. The experiments indicate that increasing Zn content results in films with a higher defect rate at the surface leading to the formation of a degenerately doped surface layer if the Zn content surpasses 50%. Furthermore, the experiments demonstrate that ZITO is susceptible to ultraviolet light induced work function reduction, similar to what was earlier observed on ITO and TiO2 films.

Hollywood Films in the Non-Western World: What Are the Criteria Followed by the Chinese Government When Choosing Hollywood Film Imports?

This dissertation argues that the Government of the People’s Republic of China, when it made the decision to import a quota of Hollywood films in 1994 to revive the failing domestic film industry, had different possible criteria in mind. This project has studied four of them: first, importing films that gave a negative image of the United States; second, importing films that featured Chinese talent or themes; third, importing films that were box office hits in the United States; and fourth, importing films with a strong technological innovation ingredient. In order to find out the most important criteria for the Chinese Government, this dissertation offers a dataset that analyzes a population of 262 Hollywood films released in the PRC between 1994 and 2010. For each unit, a method has been developed to compile data that will determine whether the film reflects any of the four criteria, and findings in the form of yearly percentages have been drawn. Results show that, out of the four studied criteria, the two predominant reasons for China to import films were technological innovation and box office hits. This tells us that, at this point, the Chinese Government shows more interest in obtaining big revenues and learning from technically innovative American films than in delivering underlying political messages. This dissertation contributes to the existing literature by analyzing the content of all the films imported by China between 1994 and 2010, while integrating in the analysis variables based on the existing knowledge.

A short screener is valid for assessing mediterranean diet adherence among older spanish men and women

Ensuring the accuracy of dietary assessment instruments is paramount for interpreting diet-disease relationships. The present study assessed the relative and construct validity of the 14-point Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS) used in the Prevencio´n con Dieta Mediterra´nea (PREDIMED) study, a primary prevention nutrition-intervention trial. A validated FFQ and the MEDAS were administered to 7146 participants of the PREDIMED study. The MEDASderived PREDIMED score correlated significantly with the corresponding FFQ PREDIMED score (r = 0.52; intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.51) and in the anticipated directions with the dietary intakes reported on the FFQ. Using Bland Altman"s analysis, the average MEDAS Mediterranean diet score estimate was 105% of the FFQ PREDIMED score estimate. Limits of agreement ranged between 57 and 153%. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that a higher PREDIMED score related directly (P , 0.001) to HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) and inversely (P , 0.038) to BMI, waist circumference, TG, the TG:HDL-C ratio, fasting glucose, and the cholesterol:HDL-C ratio. The 10-y estimated coronary artery disease risk decreased as the PREDIMED score increased (P , 0.001). The MEDAS is a valid instrument for rapid estimation of adherence to the Mediterranean diet and may be useful in clinical practice.

A short screener is valid for assessing mediterranean diet adherence among older spanish men and women

Ensuring the accuracy of dietary assessment instruments is paramount for interpreting diet-disease relationships. The present study assessed the relative and construct validity of the 14-point Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS) used in the Prevencio´n con Dieta Mediterra´nea (PREDIMED) study, a primary prevention nutrition-intervention trial. A validated FFQ and the MEDAS were administered to 7146 participants of the PREDIMED study. The MEDASderived PREDIMED score correlated significantly with the corresponding FFQ PREDIMED score (r = 0.52; intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.51) and in the anticipated directions with the dietary intakes reported on the FFQ. Using Bland Altman"s analysis, the average MEDAS Mediterranean diet score estimate was 105% of the FFQ PREDIMED score estimate. Limits of agreement ranged between 57 and 153%. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that a higher PREDIMED score related directly (P , 0.001) to HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) and inversely (P , 0.038) to BMI, waist circumference, TG, the TG:HDL-C ratio, fasting glucose, and the cholesterol:HDL-C ratio. The 10-y estimated coronary artery disease risk decreased as the PREDIMED score increased (P , 0.001). The MEDAS is a valid instrument for rapid estimation of adherence to the Mediterranean diet and may be useful in clinical practice.

Resurrecting Disney: Tracing Walt Disney‘s ever-present spirit in feature animated films of the Michael Eisner era (1984-2004)

El treball Ressuscitant a Disney: Rastrejant el sempre present esperit de Walt Disney en els llargmetratges animats de l'era Michael Eisner (1984-2004) pretén definir i analitzar les característiques, tant respecte al procés creatiu com en la definició de contingut, integrades en els clàssics originals de Disney per, a continuació, demostrar que aquestes van ser recuperades i implementades de nou després de la mort de Walt Disney -amb lleus adaptacions- per donar lloc a una segona edat d'or de l'animació

Framework for Traffic Pattern Identification: Required Step for Short-term Forecasting

In the world of transport management, the term ‘anticipation’ is gradually replacing ‘reaction’. Indeed, the ability to forecast traffic evolution in a network should ideally form the basis for many traffic management strategies and multiple ITS applications. Real-time prediction capabilities are therefore becoming a concrete need for the management of networks, both for urban and interurban environments, and today’s road operator has increasingly complex and exacting requirements. Recognising temporal patterns in traffic or the manner in which sequential traffic events evolve over time have been important considerations in short-term traffic forecasting. However, little work has been conducted in the area of identifying or associating traffic pattern occurrence with prevailing traffic conditions. This paper presents a framework for detection pattern identification based on finite mixture models using the EM algorithm for parameter estimation. The computation results have been conducted taking into account the traffic data available in an urban network.

Degradation of thin tungsten filaments at high temperature in HWCVD

The degradation of the filaments is usually studied by checking the silicidation or carbonization status of the refractory metal used as catalysts, and their effects on the structural stability of the filaments. In this paper, it will be shown that the catalytic stability of a filament heated at high temperature is much shorter than its structural lifetime. The electrical resistance of a thin tungsten filament and the deposition rate of the deposited thin film have been monitored during the filament aging. It has been found that the deposition rate drops drastically once the quantity of dissolved silicon in the tungsten reaches the solubility limit and the silicides start precipitating. This manuscript concludes that the catalytic stability is only guaranteed for a short time and that for sufficiently thick filaments it does not depend on the filament radius.

Anisotropic surface properties of micro/nanostructured a-C:H:F thin films with self-assembly applications

The singular properties of hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) thin filmsdeposited by pulsed DC plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), such as hardness and wear resistance, make it suitable as protective coating with low surface energy for self-assembly applications. In this paper, we designed fluorine-containing a-C:H (a-C:H:F) nanostructured surfaces and we characterized them for self-assembly applications. Sub-micron patterns were generated on silicon through laser lithography while contact angle measurements, nanotribometer, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize the surface. a-C:H:F properties on lithographied surfaces such as hydrophobicity and friction were improved with the proper relative quantity of CH4 and CHF3 during deposition, resulting in ultrahydrophobic samples and low friction coefficients. Furthermore, these properties were enhanced along the direction of the lithographypatterns (in-plane anisotropy). Finally, self-assembly properties were tested with silicananoparticles, which were successfully assembled in linear arrays following the generated patterns. Among the main applications, these surfaces could be suitable as particle filter selector and cell colony substrate.