Bias-dependent photocurrent collection in p-i-n a-Si : H/SiC : H heterojunction

A series of large area single layers and glass/ZnO:AVp(SixC1-x:H)/i(Si:H)/n(SixC1-x:H)/AI (0 < x < 1) heterojunction cells were produced by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PE-CVD) at low temperature. Junction properties, carrier transport and photogeneration are investigated from dark and illuminated current-voltage (J-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics. For the heterojunction cells atypical J-V characteristics under different illumination conditions are observed leading to poor fill factors. High series resistances around 106 Q are also measured. These experimental results were used as a basis for the numerical simulation of the energy band diagram, and the electrical field distribution of the structures. Further comparison with the sensor performance gave satisfactory agreement. Results show that the conduction band offset is the most limiting parameter for the optimal collection of the photogenerated carriers. As the optical gap increases and the conductivity of the doped layers decreases, the transport mechanism changes from a drift to a diffusion-limited process.

Colour filtering in a-SiC : H based p-i-n-p-i-n cells: A trade-off between bias polarity and absorption regions

A large area colour imager optically addressed is presented. The colour imager consists of a thin wide band gap p-i-n a-SiC:H filtering element deposited on the top of a thick large area a-SiC:H(-p)/a-Si:H(-i)/a-SiC:H(-n) image sensor, which reveals itself an intrinsic colour filter. In order to tune the external applied voltage for full colour discrimination the photocurrent generated by a modulated red light is measured under different optical and electrical bias. Results reveal that the integrated device behaves itself as an imager and a filter giving information not only on the position where the optical image is absorbed but also on it wavelength and intensity. The amplitude and sign of the image signals are electrically tuneable. In a wide range of incident fluxes and under reverse bias, the red and blue image signals are opposite in sign and the green signal is suppressed allowing blue and red colour recognition. The green information is obtained under forward bias, where the blue signal goes down to zero and the red and green remain constant. Combining the information obtained at this two applied voltages a RGB colour image picture can be acquired without the need of the usual colour filters or pixel architecture. A numerical simulation supports the colour filter analysis.

Eastwards / westwards: which direction for gender studies in the 21st century?

Eastwards / Westwards: Which Direction for Gender Studies in the XXIst Century? is a collection of essays which focus on themes and methods that characterize current research into gender in Asian countries in general. In this collection, ideas derived from Gender Studies elsewhere in the world have been subjected to scrutiny for their utility in helping to describe and understand regional phenomena. But the concepts of Local and Global – with their discoursive productions – have not functioned as a binary opposition: localism and globalism are mutually constitutive and researchers have interrogated those spaces of interaction between the ‘self’ and the ‘other’, bearing in mind their own embeddedness in social and cultural structures and their own historical memory. Contributors to this collection provided a critical transnational perspective on some of the complex effects of the dynamics of cultural globalization, by exploring the relation between gender and development, language, historiography, education and culture. We have also given attention to the ideological and rhetorical processes through which gender identity is constructed, by comparing textual grids and patterns of expectation. Likewise, we have discussed the role of ethnography, anthropology, historiography, sociology, fiction, popular culture and colonial and post-colonial sources in (re)inventing old/new male/female identities, their conversion into concepts and circulation through time and space. This multicultural and trans-disciplinary selection of essays is totally written in English, fully edited and revised, therefore, it has a good potential for an immediate international circulation. This project may trace new paths and issues for discussion on what concerns the life, practices and narratives by and about women in Asia, as well as elsewhere in the present day global experience. Academic readership: Researchers, scholars, educators, graduate and post-graduate students, doctoral students and general non-fiction readers, with a special interest in Gender Studies, Asia, Colonial and Post-Colonial Literature, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, History, Historiography, Politics, Race, Feminism, Language, Linguistics, Power, Political and Feminist Agendas, Popular Culture, Education, Women’s Writing, Religion, Multiculturalism, Globalisation, Migration. Chapter summary: 1. “Social Gender Stereotypes and their Implication in Hindi”, Anjali Pande, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. This essay looks at the subtle ways in which gender identities are constructed and reinforced in India through social norms of language use. Language itself becomes a medium for perpetuating gender stereotypes, forcing its speakers to confirm to socially defined gender roles. Using examples from a classroom discussion about a film, this essay will highlight the underlying rigid male-female stereotypes in Indian society with their more obvious expressions in language. For the urban woman in India globalisation meant increased economic equality and exposure to changed lifestyles. On an individual level it also meant redefining gender relations and changing the hierarchy in man-­woman relationships. With the economic independence there is a heightened sense of liberation in all spheres of social life, a confidence to fuzz the rigid boundaries of gender roles. With the new films and media celebrating this liberated woman, who is ready to assert her sexual needs, who is ready to explode those long held notions of morality, one would expect that the changes are not just superficial. But as it soon became obvious in the course of a classroom discussion about relationships and stereotypes related to age, the surface changes can not become part of the common vocabulary, for the obvious reason that there is still a vast gap between the screen image of this new woman and the ground reality. Social considerations define the limits of this assertiveness of women, whereas men are happy to be liberal within the larger frame of social sanctions. The educated urban woman in India speaks in favour of change and the educated urban male supports her, but one just needs to scratch the surface to see the time tested formulae of gender roles firmly in place. The way the urban woman happily balances this emerging promise of independence with her gendered social identity, makes it necessary to rethink some aspects of looking at gender in a gradually changing, traditional society like India. 2. “The Linguistic Dimension of Gender Equality”, Alissa Tolstokorova, Kiev Centre for Gender Information and Education, Ukraine. The subject-matter of this essay is gender justice in language which, as I argue, may be achieved through the development of a gender-related approach to linguistic human rights. The last decades of the 20th century, globally marked by a “gender shift” in attitudes to language policy, gave impetus to the social movement for promoting linguistic gender equality. It was initiated in Western Europe and nowadays is moving eastwards, as ideas of gender democracy progress into developing countries. But, while in western societies gender discrimination through language, or linguistic sexism, was an issue of concern for over three decades, in developing countries efforts to promote gender justice in language are only in their infancy. My argument is that to promote gender justice in language internationally it is necessary to acknowledge the rights of women and men to equal representation of their gender in language and speech and, therefore, raise a question of linguistic rights of the sexes. My understanding is that the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights in 1996 provided this opportunity to address the problem of gender justice in language as a human rights issue, specifically as a gender dimension of linguistic human rights. 3. “The Rebirth of an Old Language: Issues of Gender Equality in Kazakhstan”, Maria Helena Guimarães, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal. The existing language situation in Kazakhstan, while peaceful, is not without some tension. We propose to analyze here some questions we consider relevant in the frame of cultural globalization and gender equality, such as: free from Russian imperialism, could Kazakhstan become an easy prey of Turkey’s “imperialist dream”? Could these traditionally Muslim people be soon facing the end of religious tolerance and gender equality, becoming this new old language an easy instrument for the infiltration in the country of fundamentalism (it has already crossed the boarders of Uzbekistan), leading to a gradual deterioration of its rich multicultural relations? The present structure of the language is still very fragile: there are three main dialects and many academics defend the re-introduction of the Latin alphabet, thus enlarging the possibility of cultural “contamination” by making the transmission of fundamentalist ideas still easier through neighbour countries like Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan (their languages belong to the same sub-group of Common Turkic), where the Latin alphabet is already in use, and where the ground for such ideas shown itself very fruitful. 4. “Construction of Womanhood in the Bengali Language of Bangladesh”, Raasheed Mahmood; University of New South Wales, Sydney. The present essay attempts to explore the role of gender-based language differences and of certain markers that reveal the status accorded to women in Bangladesh. Discrimination against women, in its various forms, is endemic in communities and countries around the world, cutting across class, race, age, and religious and national boundaries. One cannot understand the problems of gender discrimination solely by referring to the relationship of power or authority between men and women. Rather one needs to consider the problem by relating it to the specific social formation in which the image of masculinity and femininity is constructed and reconstructed. Following such line of reasoning this essay will examine the nature of gender bias in the Bengali language of Bangladesh, holding the conviction that as a product of social reality language reflects the socio-cultural behaviour of the community who speaks it. This essay will also attempt to shed some light on the processes through which gender based language differences produce actual consequences for women, who become exposed to low self-esteem, depression and systematic exclusion from public discourse. 5. “Marriage in China as an expression of a changing society”, Elisabetta Rosado David, University of Porto, Portugal, and Università Ca’Foscari, Venezia, Italy. In 29 April 2001, the new Marriage Law was promulgated in China. The first law on marriage was proclaimed in 1950 with the objective of freeing women from the feudal matrimonial system. With the second law, in 1981, values and conditions that had been distorted by the Cultural Revolution were recovered. Twenty years later, a new reform was started, intending to update marriage in the view of the social and cultural changes that occurred with Deng Xiaoping’s “open policy”. But the legal reform is only the starting point for this case-study. The rituals that are followed in the wedding ceremony are often hard to understand and very difficult to standardize, especially because China is a vast country, densely populated and characterized by several ethnic minorities. Two key words emerge from this issue: syncretism and continuity. On this basis, we can understand tradition in a better way, and analyse whether or not marriage, as every social manifestation, has evolved in harmony with Chinese culture. 6. “The Other Woman in the Portuguese Colonial Empire: The Case of Portuguese India”, Maria de Deus Manso, University of Évora, Portugal. This essay researches the social, cultural and symbolic history of local women in the Portuguese Indian colonial enclaves. The normative Portuguese overseas history has not paid any attention to the “indigenous” female populations in colonial Portuguese territories, albeit the large social importance of these social segments largely used in matrimonial and even catholic missionary strategies. The first attempt to open fresh windows in the history of this new field was the publication of Charles Boxer’s referential study about Women in lberian Overseas Expansion, edited in Portugal only after the Revolution of 1975. After this research we can only quote some other fragmentary efforts. In fact, research about the social, cultural, religious, political and symbolic situation of women in the Portuguese colonial territories, from the XVI to the XX century, is still a minor historiographic field. In this essay we discuss this problem and we study colonial representations of women in the Portuguese Indian enclaves, mainly in the territory of Goa, using case studies methodologies. 7. “Heading East this Time: Critical Readings on Gender in Southeast Asia”, Clara Sarmento, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal. This essay intends to discuss some critical readings of fictional and theoretical texts on gender condition in Southeast Asian countries. Nowadays, many texts about women in Southeast Asia apply concepts of power in unusual areas. Traditional forms of gender hegemony have been replaced by other powerful, if somewhat more covert, forms. We will discuss some universal values concerning conventional female roles as well as the strategies used to recognize women in political fields traditionally characterized by male dominance. Female empowerment will mean different things at different times in history, as a result of culture, local geography and individual circumstances. Empowerment needs to be perceived as an individual attitude, but it also has to be facilitated at the macro­level by society and the State. Gender is very much at the heart of all these dynamics, strongly related to specificities of historical, cultural, ethnic and class situatedness, requiring an interdisciplinary transnational approach.

: SiC Multilayer Photonic Structures with Self Optical Bias Amplification

Characteristics of tunable wavelength pi'n/pin filters based on a-SiC:H multilayered stacked cells are studied both experimental and theoretically. Results show that the device combines the demultiplexing operation with the simultaneous photodetection and self amplification of the signal. An algorithm to decode the multiplex signal is established. A capacitive active band-pass filter model is presented and supported by an electrical simulation of the state variable filter circuit. Experimental and simulated results show that the device acts as a state variable filter. It combines the properties of active high-pass and low-pass filter sections into a capacitive active band-pass filter using a changing photo capacitance to control the power delivered to the load.

Reconfigurable SiC Embedded Photonic Structures with Self Optical Bias Control

Multilayered heterostructures based on embedded a-Si:H and a-SiC:H p-i-n filters are analyzed from differential voltage design perspective using short- and long-pass filters. The transfer functions characteristics are presented. A numerical simulation is presented to explain the filtering properties of the photonic devices. Several monochromatic pulsed lights, separately (input channels) or in a polychromatic mixture (multiplexed signal) at different bit rates, illuminated the device. Steady-state optical bias is superimposed from the front and the back side. Results show that depending on the wavelength of the external background and impinging side, the device acts either as a short- or a long-pass band filter or as a band-stop filter. Particular attention is given to the amplification coefficient weights, which allow to take into account the wavelength background effects when a band or frequency needs to be filtered or the gate switch, in which optical active filter gates are used to select and filter input signals to specific output ports in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) communication systems. This nonlinearity provides the possibility for selective removal or addition of wavelengths. A truth table of an encoder that performs 8-to-1 MUX function exemplifies the optoelectronic conversion.

Saúde de famílias do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra e de bóias-frias, Brasil, 2005

OBJETIVO: Avaliar as condições de saúde de famílias ligadas ao Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra e de bóias-frias. MÉTODOS: Realizou-se estudo comparativo de três populações: assentamento e acampamento do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, e famílias de bóias-frias, em Unaí, MG, em 2005. Foram coletados os dados referentes às características sociodemográficas e familiares por meio de questionários aplicados a 202 famílias, e realizadas observação estruturada e discussões em grupo. Realizou-se a análise fatorial discriminante para se verificar diferenças entre as comunidades. RESULTADOS: As três comunidades apresentaram uma média de 89%, caracterizando-se como grupos distintos e reforçando a hipótese de que são realmente diferentes entre si em termos de suas condições de vida e saúde. Os trabalhadores bóias-frias apresentaram um alto índice de insegurança alimentar (39,5%), quase o dobro da proporção entre as famílias acampadas e quatro vezes mais que as assentadas. Com uma renda variável e baixa, os bóias-frias estavam mais expostos aos agrotóxicos se comparados aos assentados e acampados. A produção animal desenvolvida por todas as famílias assentadas foi uma característica marcante, ao contrário das famílias bóias-frias que praticamente não contavam com essa possibilidade na cidade. Segundo a percepção das famílias assentadas e acampadas, o Sistema Único de Saúde não tem atendido as necessidades de saúde da maioria delas, principalmente pela dificuldade do acesso aos serviços. Para esse grupo, o atendimento de suas necessidades se dá após reivindicações e pressões sobre os governos. CONCLUSÕES: Segundo a percepção das famílias do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, o fato de ser do Movimento e estar organizado melhora suas perspectivas de saúde, em comparação aos bóias-frias. Os resultados da modernização conservadora no campo brasileiro têm agravado as condições de vida dos bóias-frias gerando uma superexploração do trabalho humano, enquanto que a Reforma Agrária tem possibilitado uma melhor qualidade de vida e saúde para as famílias, quando comparadas nas áreas estudadas.

Logic functions based on optical bias controlled SIC Tandem devices

The purpose of this paper is the design of an optoelectronic circuit based on a-SiC technology, able to act simultaneously as a 4-bit binary encoder or a binary decoder in a 4-to-16 line configurations and show multiplexer-based logical functions. The device consists of a p-i'(a-SiC:H)-n/p-i(a-Si:H)-n multilayered structure produced by PECVD. To analyze it under information-modulated wave (color channels) and uniform irradiation (background) four monochromatic pulsed lights (input channels): red, green, blue and violet shine on the device. Steady state optical bias was superimposed separately from the front and the back sides, and the generated photocurrent was measured. Results show that the devices, under appropriate optical bias, act as reconfigurable active filters that allow optical switching and optoelectronic logic functions development providing the possibility for selective removal of useless wavelengths. The logic functions needed to construct any other complex logic functions are the NOT, and both or either an AND or an OR. Any other complex logic function that might be found can also be used as building blocks to achieve the functions needed for the retrieval of channels within the WDM communication link. (C) 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Tunnig optical A-Sic/A-Si active filters by UV bias light in the visible and infrared spectral ranges

Visible range to telecom band spectral translation is accomplished using an amorphous SiC pi'n/pin wavelength selector under appropriate front and back optical light bias. Results show that background intensity works as selectors in the infrared region, shifting the sensor sensitivity. Low intensities select the near-infrared range while high intensities select the visible part according to its wavelength. Here, the optical gain is very high in the infrared/red range, decreases in the green range, stays close to one in the blue region and strongly decreases in the near-UV range. The transfer characteristics effects due to changes in steady state light intensity and wavelength backgrounds are presented. The relationship between the optical inputs and the output signal is established. A capacitive optoelectronic model is presented and tested using the experimental results. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

HLA and malaria in four colombian ethnic groups

HLA antigens and their relationship with malaria infection were studied in four different ethnic groups in Colombia (South America): two groups of indians (Kunas and Katios), one of negroes and a group of mixed ancestry. A total of 965 persons were studied, 415 with malaria and 550 as controls. HLA-A,B, and C antigen frequencies in the four groups are reported. The association of each HLA antigen with malaria infection due to P. vivax and to P. falciparum was evaluated. Negroes, Kunas and Katios indians variously lack from 6 to 9 of the HLA antigens found in the mixed group. In the designated ethnic groups, antigens B5, B13, B15, Cw2 and Cw4 showed borderline association with malaria infection. However, in the mixed ethnic group, statistically significant associations were found with malaria infection and the presence of A9, Aw19, B17, B35, and Z98 (a B21-B45: crossreacting determinant) with few differences when P. vivax infection and P. falciparum infection were considered individually. This finding may represent a lack of general resistance to malaria in the group that harbors antigens of Caucasian origin. These individuals have been in direct and permanent contact with malaria only in the past 65 years. In contrast, indians, both Kunas and Katios, and Negroes have lived for centuries in malaria endemic areas, and it is possible that a natural selection system has developed through which only those individuals able to initiate an acute immune response to malaria have survived.

The making of saudade. National identity and ethnic psychology in Portugal

Roots and rituals.The construction of ethnic identities, Ton Dekker, John Helsloot Carla Wijers editors, p. 267-268; Selected papers of the 6TH SIEF conference on 'Roots & rituals', Amsterdam 20-25 April 1998.

Prevalence of HTLV-I antibody among two distinct ethnic groups inhabiting the Amazon region of Brazil

HTLV-I seroprevalences of 3.63% (02/55), 12.19% (10/82) and 13.88% (10/72) were demonstrated among Tiryio, Mekranoiti and Xicrin Amazonian Indians, respectively, by the Western blotting enzyme assay (WBEI). By indirect immuno electron microscopy (IIEM), 2 Tiriyo, 9 Mekranoiti and 6 Xicrin Amerindians were reactive. Of 44 serum samples from Japanese immigrants, none reacted by any of the techniques before mentioned. One, 8 and 6 serum samples from Tiryio, Mekranoiti and Xicrin Indians, respectively, were both WBEI and IIEM positive. Our results strongly suggest that HTLV-I and/or an HTLV-I antigenic variant circulate (s) among populations living in the Amazon region of Brazil.

Socio-ethnic segregation and sustainable urban city planning in Lisbon

Dissertação apresentada para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ecologia Humana e Problemas Sociais Contemporâneos

Semantics bias in cross-national comparative analyses : Is it good or bad to have "fair" health?

The Health Behavior in School-aged Children is a cross-national study collecting data on social and health indicators on adolescents in 43 countries. The study provides comparable data on health behaviors and health outcomes through the use of a common protocol, which have been a back bone of the study sine its initiation in 1983. Recent years, researchers within the study have noticed a questionable comparability on the widely used item on self-rated health. One of the four response categories to the item "Would you say your health is….?" showed particular variation, as the response category "Fair" varied from 20 % in Latvia and Moldova to 3-4 % in Bulgaria and Macedonia. A qualitative mini-survey of the back-translations showed that the response category "Fair" had a negative slant in 25 countries, a positive slant in 10 countries and was considered neutral in 9 countries. This finding indicates that there are what may be called semantic issues affecting comparability in international studies, since the same original word (in an English original) is interpreted differently across countries and cultures. The paper test and discuss a few possible explanations to this, however, only leaving to future studies to hold a cautious approach to international comparisons if working with the self-rated health item with four response categories.

Local Rainfall Variability - A Potential Bias for Bioecological Studies in the Central Amazon

Rainfall data registered betwe en 1910 and 1979 at Manaus confirm the existence of a dry season between June and November (monthly rainfall: 42-162mm) and a rainy season from December until May (monthly rainfall: 211-300mm). Annual precipitation amounted to 2105mm with about 75% of the rainfall recorded during the rainy season. Rainfall data collected over 12 months at eigth stations in the vicinity of and at Manaus are compared. Annual precipitation was lower in Inundation Regions (1150-2150mm) compared with Dryland Regions (2400-2550mm). Considerable differences are found in rainfall patterns (intensity, frequency and time of rainfall). This is also truefor neighbouring stations, even if data of a 11-year record period are compared. Thus, it is highly recommended that preciptation data for bioecological studies be collected at the study site.

Bias in returns to tenure when firm wages and employment comove: A quantitative assessment and solution

It is well known that, unless worker-firm match quality is controlled for, returns to firm tenure (RTT) estimated directly via reduced form wage (Mincer) equations will be biased. In this paper we show that even if match quality is properly controlled for there is a further pervasive source of bias, namely the co-movement of firm employment and firm wages. In a simple mechanical model where human capital is absent and separation is exogenous we show that positively covarying shocks (either aggregate or firm level) to firms employment and wages cause downward bias in OLS regression estimates of RTT. We show that the long established procedures for dealing with "traditional" RTT bias do not circumvent the additional problem we have identified. We argue that if a reduced form estimation of RTT is undertaken, firm-year fixed effects must be added in order to eliminate this bias. Estimates from two large panel datasets from Portugal and Germany show that the bias is empirically important. Adding firm-year fixed effects to the regression increases estimates of RTT in the two respective countries by between 3.5% and 4.5% of wages at 20 years of tenure over 80% (50%) of the estimated RTT level itself. The results extend to tenure correlates used in macroeconomics such as the minimum unemployment rate since joining the firm. Adding firm-year fixed effects changes estimates of these effects also.