Preparation, patterning and luminescence properties of rare earth-doped YVO4 nanocrystalline phosphor films via sol-gel soft lithography

In this presentation, nanocrystalline YVO4:A (A=Eu3+, Dy3+, SM3+, Er3+) phosphor films and their patterning were fabricated by a Pechini sol-gel process combined with a soft lithography (micro-molding in capillaries). XRD, FT-IR, AFM and optical microscope, absorption spectra, photoluminescence (PL) spectra as well as lifetimes were used to characterize the resulting films. The results of XRD indicated that the films began to crystallize at 400 degrees C and the crystallinity increased with the increase of annealing temperatures. Transparent nonpattemed phosphor films were uniform and crack free, which mainly consisted of grains with an average size of 90nm. Patterned crystalline phosphor film bands with different widths (5-30 mu m) were obtained. The doped rare earth ions (A) showed their characteristic emission in crystalline YVO4 phosphor films due to an efficient energy transfer from vanadate groups to them. The Sm3+ and Er3+ ions also showed upconversion luminescence in YVO4 film host. The optimum concentration for Eu3+ was determined to be 7 mol% and those for Dy3+, Sm3+, Er3+ were 2 Mol% of Y3+ in YVO4 films, respectively.

Double twist in helical polymer "soft" crystals

In natural and synthetic materials having non-racemic chiral centers, chirality and structural ordering each play a distinct role in the formation of ordered states. Configurational chirality can be extended to morphological chirality when the phase, structures possess low liquid crystalline order. In the crystalline states the crystallization process suppresses the chiral helical morphology due to strong ordering interactions, In this Letter, we report the first observation of helical single lamellar crystals of synthetic non-racemic chiral polymers. Experimental evidence shows that the molecular chains twist along both the long and short axes of the helical lamellar crystals, which is the first time a double-twist molecular orientation in a helical crystal has been observed.

Surface roughness characterization of soft x-ray multilayer films on the nanometer scale

The soft x-ray reflectivity of multilayer films is affected by the surface roughness on the transverse nanometer scale. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) is an ideal instrument for providing high-lateral-resolution roughness measurements for soft x-ray multilayer films that cannot be obtained with other types of instruments on the transverse nanometer scale. The surface roughnesses of Mo/Si, Mo/C, and W/Si soft x-ray multilayer films prepared by an ion-beam-sputtering technique were measured with a STM on the vertical and transverse attributes. The film roughnesses and average spatial wavelengths added to the substrates depend on the multilayer film fabrication conditions, i.e., material combinations, number of layers, and individual layer thickness. These were estimated to lead to a loss of specular reflectivity and variations of the soft x-ray scattering angle distribution. This method points the way to further studies of soft x-ray multilayer film functional properties and can be used as basic guidance for selecting the best coating conditions in the fabrications of soft x-ray multilayer films. (C) 1996 American Vacuum Society.

A novel hydroperoxyl substituted cembranolide diterpene from marine soft coral Lobophytum crassum

A new cembranolide diterpene with a hydroperoxyl substitution was isolated from the marine soft coral Lobophytum crassum. The structure was elucidated on the basis of chemical and spectral methods.

Numerical modeling of water wave interaction with a soft mud bed

A vertical 2-D numerical model is presented for simulating the interaction between water waves and a soft mud bed. Taking into account nonlinear rheology, a semi-empirical rheological model is applied to this water-mud model, reflecting the combined visco-elasto-plastic properties of soft mud under such oscillatory external forces as water waves. In order to increase the resolution of the flow in the neighborhood of both sides of the inter-surface, a logarithmic grid in the vertical direction is employed for numerical treatment. Model verifications are given through comparisons between the calculated and the measured mud mass transport velocities as well as wave height changes.

品牌形象的消费行为学分析

Brand image is the attributes set and the related associations of a brand in consumers mind, and it is the subjective reflections of brands. The paper explored the factors of brand image system and their weight. As the traditional means to evaluate weight coefficients are not perfect, a new method, conjoint analysis, was attempted. The factors of brand image were explored through questionnaire. Sports sneaker, toothpaste, and personal stereo were chosen as product sample, and four hundred and twenty university students from Tangshan city and Beijing as subjects(each person evaluated two kinds of products). The first two kinds of products were requisites of students, and sports sneaker belonged to High conspicuous products and toothpaste was low conspicuous product. On the other hand, personal stereo was the sample of development and entertainment products. Several factors of three products brand were taken out with factor analysis. In order to explore the weight of the brand image factors, a contrast of factor contribution ratio method, holistic quartation method and conjoint analysis is made here. Twenty university students evaluated the weight of the image factors of three kinds of brand with holistic quartation method, then they gave the weight of personal stereo with conjoint analysis method. Product function, advertising and propaganda, symbolic meaning, market orientation, brand appetency, consuming experience are the factors of sports sneaker brand image. Product function, advertising and propaganda, market orientation, product grade, corporation image are the factors of toothpaste brand image. Corporation image and product function, advertising and propaganda, consuming experience, symbolic meaning, price and function ratio are the factors of personal stereo brand image. So the hypothesis was proved that brand image is an ordinal and organical system, "ordinal" means the weight of factors are different, "organical" means that brand image can be deposed into several factors and the factors belonged to function components and meaning components (function components are the factors about physical characteristics and function, which are called "hard factors"); meaning factors are those that can show the personality、value and lifestyle of consumers, which are called "soft factors". The research also gave evidence of the hypothesis below: the factor structures of brand image of different product category have commonness and individuality; the function components of low conspicuous products are more important than the high conspicuous products. The exploration of conjoint analysis is what the paper seeks to be some creative in some degree.

Festival Images: brand image and stakeholders' brand relationship types at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (The Fringe) is the largest arts festival in the world and it has inspired the creation of similar festivals world-wide. Since its conception in 1947, the Fringe has demonstrated significant growth in visitor numbers; ticket sales; and its economic contribution. Despite this, the sustainable future of Edinburgh’s festivals is debated as Edinburgh, ‘the Festival City’, faces threats from other festival destinations. Festivals position Edinburgh creatively in contrast to the city’s traditionally perceived image as a cultural-historic centre. Despite this, little research has been undertaken into the creative and cultural significance of Edinburgh’s festivals, including the Fringe. This interdisciplinary research grounded in marketing, tourism, and festival and event management; and underpinned by constructivism, presents an understanding of types of brand relationships that exist between the Fringe and its primary stakeholders. This is achieved through defining both the Fringe brand image and its primary stakeholders; and applying these definitions to the development of a typology of Fringe-stakeholders’ brand relationships. The significance of this study is evident within its topic of inquiry and the research methods applied. In the little-considered arena of arts festivals and their stakeholders, this is the first in-depth study into the Fringe as a festival and festival brand. Within this, the definition of a Fringe brand image contributes to understanding the cultural and creative significance of the Fringe. Furthermore, this research contributes a unique understanding of the types of stakeholders that are engaged with the Fringe. The types of brand relationships that exist between these stakeholders and the Fringe are another significant contribution to knowledge and understanding. While specific to the present context, these findings may prove transferable to further festivals or events, and related areas and industries. The contribution made by this research to the methodological developments in festival and event studies is of additional significance. The application of visual research methods, including semiotic analysis and photo-elicitation within phenomenological interviews, has previously been applied in marketing, consumer, and tourism research, but not to the understanding of festival brands and stakeholders’ brand relationship types. Findings of this research illustrate that existing marketing and consumer brand frameworks and stakeholder theories are applicable to festivals. Further, it is possible to define ‘a’ Fringe brand image which is subjective and contradictory. The unique open-access and organic, operational model of the Fringe facilitates its many contributors, and consumers. Fringe stakeholders may be categorised according to their level of engagement with the Fringe (as primary or secondary) and their particular stakeholder role(s), which are varied and multiple. Fringe-stakeholder brand relationship types are overwhelmingly positive; and are based upon interpersonal relationship dimensions (including friendships, marriages, kinships and partnerships). Fringe-stakeholder brand relationship types can be classified therefore as having similar dimensions to those brand relationship types previously described for consumer products and brands.

The detection of 'soft' materials by selective energy xray transmission imaging and computer tomography

R. Zwiggelaar, C.R. Bull, M.J. Mooney and S. Czarnes, 'The detection of 'soft' materials by selective energy xray transmission imaging and computer tomography', Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research 66 (3), 203-212 (1997)

Customers' responses to retail brand extensions

Alexander, N.; and Colgate, N. (2005). Customers' responses to retail brand extensions. Journal of Marketing Management. 21(3-4), pp.393-419 RAE2008

Análise das atitudes e comportamento dos jovens face ao consumo de refrigerantes

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciências da Comunicação, especialização em Marketing e Publicidade.

Providing Soft Bandwidth Guarantees Using Elastic TCP-based Tunnels

The best-effort nature of the Internet poses a significant obstacle to the deployment of many applications that require guaranteed bandwidth. In this paper, we present a novel approach that enables two edge/border routers-which we call Internet Traffic Managers (ITM)-to use an adaptive number of TCP connections to set up a tunnel of desirable bandwidth between them. The number of TCP connections that comprise this tunnel is elastic in the sense that it increases/decreases in tandem with competing cross traffic to maintain a target bandwidth. An origin ITM would then schedule incoming packets from an application requiring guaranteed bandwidth over that elastic tunnel. Unlike many proposed solutions that aim to deliver soft QoS guarantees, our elastic-tunnel approach does not require any support from core routers (as with IntServ and DiffServ); it is scalable in the sense that core routers do not have to maintain per-flow state (as with IntServ); and it is readily deployable within a single ISP or across multiple ISPs. To evaluate our approach, we develop a flow-level control-theoretic model to study the transient behavior of established elastic TCP-based tunnels. The model captures the effect of cross-traffic connections on our bandwidth allocation policies. Through extensive simulations, we confirm the effectiveness of our approach in providing soft bandwidth guarantees. We also outline our kernel-level ITM prototype implementation.

Soft sediment ecology of Lough Hyne Marine Reserve - spatial and temporal patterns

Distribution of soft sediment benthic fauna and the environmental factors affecting them were studied, to investigate changes across spatial and temporal scales. Investigations took place at Lough Hyne Marine Reserve using a range of methods. Data on the sedimentation rates of organic and inorganic matter were collected at monthly intervals for one year at a number of sites around the Lough, by use of vertical midwater-column sediment traps. Sedimentation of these two fractions were not coupled; inorganic matter sedimentation depended on hydrodynamic and weather factors, while the organic matter sedimentation was more complex, being dependent on biological and chemical processes in the water column. The effects of regular hypoxic episodes on benthic fauna due to a natural seasonal thermocline were studied in the deep Western Trough, using camera-equipped remotely-operated vehicle to follow transects, on a three-monthly basis over one year. In late summer, the area below the thermocline of the Western Trough was devoid of visible fauna. Decapod crustaceans were the first taxon to make use of ameliorating oxygen conditions in autumn, by darting below the thermocline depth, most likely to scavenge. This was indicated by tracks that they left on the surface of the Trough floor. Some species, most noticeably Fries’ goby Lesueurigobius friesii, migrated below the thermocline depth when conditions were normoxic and established semi-permanent burrows. Their population encompassed all size classes, indicating that this habitat was not limited to juveniles of this territorial species. Recolonisation by macrofauna and burrowing megafauna was studied during normoxic conditions, from November 2009 to May 2010. Macrofauna displayed a typical post-disturbance pattern of recolonisation with one species, the polychaete Scalibregma inflatum, occurring at high abundance levels in March 2010. In May, this population had become significantly reduced and a more diverse community was established. The abundance of burrowing infauna comprising decapods crabs and Fries’ gobies, was estimated by identifying and counting their distinctive burrow structures. While above the summer thermocline depth, burrow abundance increased in a linear fashion, below the thermocline depth a slight reduction of burrow abundance occurred in May, when oxygen conditions deteriorated again. The majority of the burrows occurring in May were made by Fries’ gobies, which are thought to encounter low oxygen concentrations in their burrows. Reduction in burrow abundance of burrowing shrimps Calocaris macandreae and Callianassa subterranea (based on descriptions of burrow structures from the literature), from March to May, might be related to their reduced activity in hypoxia, leading to loss of structural burrow maintenance. Spatial and temporal changes to macrofaunal assemblage structures were studied seasonally for one year across 5 sites in the Lough and subject to multivariate statistical analysis. Assemblage structures were significantly correlated with organic matter levels in the sediment, the amounts of organic matter settling out of the water column one month before macrofaunal sampling took place as well as current speed and temperature. This study was the first to investigate patterns and processes in the Lough soft sediment ecology across all 3 basins on a temporal and spatial scale. An investigation into the oceanographic aspects of the development, behaviour and break-down of the summer thermocline of Lough Hyne was performed in collaboration with researchers from other Irish institutions.

Synecology in soft sediment bivalves: the influence of parasites, physiological processes, and environmental stressors on health and disease

Ecosystem goods and services provided by estuarine and near coastal regions are being increasingly recognised for their immense value, as is the biodiversity in these areas and these near coastal communities have been identified as sentinels of climate change also. Population structure and reproductive biology of two bivalve molluscs, Cerastoderma edule and, Mytilus edulis were assessed at two study sites over a 16-month study period. Following an anomalously harsh winter, advancement of spawning time was observed in both species. Throughout Ireland and Europe the cockle has experienced mass surfacings in geographically distinct regions, and a concurrent study of cockles was undertaken to explore this phenomenon. Surfaced and buried cockles were collected on a monthly basis and their health compared. Age was highlighted as a source of variation between dying and healthy animals with a parasite threshold being reached possibly around age three. Local factors dominated when looking at the cause of surfacing at each site. The health of mussels was explored too on a temporal and seasonal basis in an attempt to assess what constitutes a healthy organism. In essence external drivers can tip the balance between “acceptable” levels of infection where the mussel can still function physiologically and “unacceptable” where prevalence and intensity of infection can result in physiological impairment at the individual and population level. Synecological studies of intertidal ecosystems are lacking, so all bivalves encountered during the sampling were assessed in terms of population structure, reproduction, and health. It became clear, that some parasites might specialize on one host species while others are not so specific in host choice. Furthermore the population genetics of the cockle, its parasite Meiogymnophallus minutus, and its hyperparasite Unikaryon legeri were examined too. A small nucleotide polymorphism was detected upon comparison of Ireland and Morocco.