Analyzing hysteresis behavior of capacitance-voltage characteristics of IZO/C₆₀/pentacene/Au diodes with a hole-transport electron-blocking polyterpenol layer by electric-field-induced optical second-harmonic generation measurement

By using electric-field-induced optical second-harmonic generation (EFISHG) measurement, we analyzed hysteresis behavior of capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics of IZO/polyterpenol (PT)/C₆₀/pentacene/Au diodes, where PT layer is actively working as a hole-transport electron-blocking layer. The EFISHG measurement verified the presence of interface accumulated charges in the diodes, and showed that a space charge electric field from accumulated excess electrons (holes) that remain at the PT/C₆₀ (C₆₀/pentacene) interface is responsible for the hysteresis loop observed in the C-V characteristics.

Hydrogeology, Chemical Characteristics, and Transport Processes in the Zone of Contribution of a Public-Supply Well in York, Nebraska

In 2001, the U.S. Geological Survey, as part of the National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program, initiated a topical study of Transport of Anthropogenic and Natural Contaminants (TANC) to PSW (public-supply wells). Local-scale and regional-scale TANC study areas were delineated within selected NAWQA study units for intensive study of processes effecting transport of contaminants to PSWs. This report describes results from a local-scale TANC study area at York, Nebraska, within the High Plains aquifer, including the hydrogeology and geochemistry of a 108-square-kilometer study area that contains the zone of contribution to a PSW selected for study (study PSW), and describes factors controlling the transport of selected anthropogenic and natural contaminants to PSWs.

Use of behavioural patterns to analyze transport stress in piglets and young bulls. The influence of individual coping characteristics in stress response.

In modern farm systems the economic interests make reducing the risks related to transport practice an important goal. An increasing attention is directed to the welfare of animals in transit, also considering the new existing facilities. In recent years the results coming from the study of animal farm behaviour were used as tool to assess the welfare. In this thesis were analyzed behavioural patterns, jointly with blood variables, to evaluate the stress response of piglets and young bulls during transport. Since the animal behaviour could be different between individuals and these differences can affect animal responses to aversive situations, the individual behavioural characteristics were taken in account. Regarding young bulls, selected to genetic evaluation, the individual behaviour was investigated before, during and after transport, while for piglets was adopted a tested methodology classification and behavioural tests to observe their coping characteristics. The aim of this thesis was to analyse the behavioural and physiological response of young bulls and piglets to transport practice and to investigate if coping characteristics may affect how piglets cope with aversive situations. The thesis is composed by four experimental studies. The first one aims to identify the best existent methodology classification of piglets coping style between those that were credited in literature. The second one investigated the differences in response to novel situations of piglets with different coping styles. The last studies evaluated the stress response of piglets and young bulls to road transportation. The results obtained show that transport did not affect the behaviour and homeostasis of young animals which respond in a different way from adults. However the understanding of individual behavioural characteristic and the use of behavioural patterns, in addition to blood analyses, need to be more investigated in order to be useful tools to assess the animal response in aversive situation.

Fast and accurate numerical solutions in some problems of particle and radiation transport: synthetic acceleration for the method of short characteristics, Doppler-broadened scattering kernel, remote sensing of the cryosphere

The aim of this work is to present various aspects of numerical simulation of particle and radiation transport for industrial and environmental protection applications, to enable the analysis of complex physical processes in a fast, reliable, and efficient way. In the first part we deal with speed-up of numerical simulation of neutron transport for nuclear reactor core analysis. The convergence properties of the source iteration scheme of the Method of Characteristics applied to be heterogeneous structured geometries has been enhanced by means of Boundary Projection Acceleration, enabling the study of 2D and 3D geometries with transport theory without spatial homogenization. The computational performances have been verified with the C5G7 2D and 3D benchmarks, showing a sensible reduction of iterations and CPU time. The second part is devoted to the study of temperature-dependent elastic scattering of neutrons for heavy isotopes near to the thermal zone. A numerical computation of the Doppler convolution of the elastic scattering kernel based on the gas model is presented, for a general energy dependent cross section and scattering law in the center of mass system. The range of integration has been optimized employing a numerical cutoff, allowing a faster numerical evaluation of the convolution integral. Legendre moments of the transfer kernel are subsequently obtained by direct quadrature and a numerical analysis of the convergence is presented. In the third part we focus our attention to remote sensing applications of radiative transfer employed to investigate the Earth's cryosphere. The photon transport equation is applied to simulate reflectivity of glaciers varying the age of the layer of snow or ice, its thickness, the presence or not other underlying layers, the degree of dust included in the snow, creating a framework able to decipher spectral signals collected by orbiting detectors.

Intrinsic characteristics of the proton pump in the luminal membrane of a tight urinary epithelium. The relation between transport rate and delta mu H.

A number of tight urinary epithelia, as exemplified by the turtle bladder, acidify the luminal solution by active transport of H+ across the luminal cell membrane. The rate of active H+ transport (JH) decreases as the electrochemical potential difference for H+ [delta mu H = mu H(lumen) - mu H(serosa)] across the epithelium is increased. The luminal cell membrane has a low permeability for H+ equivalents and a high electrical resistance compared with the basolateral cell membrane. Changes in JH thus reflect changes in active H+ transport across the luminal membrane. To examine the control of JH by delta mu H in the turtle bladder, transepithelial electrical potential differences (delta psi) were imposed at constant acid-base conditions or the luminal pH was varied at delta psi = 0 and constant serosal PCO2 and pH. When the luminal compartment was acidified from pH 7 to 4 or was made electrically positive, JH decreased as a linear function of delta mu H as previously described. When the luminal compartment was made alkaline from pH 7 to 9 or was made electrically negative, JH reached a maximal value, which was the same whether the delta mu H was imposed as a delta pH or a delta psi. The nonlinear JH vs. delta mu H relation does not result from changes in the number of pumps in the luminal membrane or from changes in the intracellular pH, but is a characteristic of the H+ pumps themselves. We propose a general scheme, which, because of its structural features, can account for the nonlinearity of the JH vs. delta mu H relations and, more specifically, for the kinetic equivalence of the effects of the chemical and electrical components of delta mu H. According to this model, the pump complex consists of two components: a catalytic unit at the cytoplasmic side of the luminal membrane, which mediates the ATP-driven H+ translocation, and a transmembrane channel, which mediates the transfer of H+ from the catalytic unit to the luminal solution. These two components may be linked through a buffer compartment for H+ (an antechamber).

Characteristics of surface-water flows in the ridge and slough landscape of Everglades National Park: implications for particulate transport

Over the last one hundred years, compartmentalization and water management activities have reduced water flow to the ridge and slough landscape of the Everglades. As a result, the once corrugated landscape has become topographically and vegetationally uniform. The focus of this study was to quantify variation in surface flow in the ridge and slough landscape and to relate flow conditions to particulate transport and deposition. Over the 2002–2003 and 2003–2004 wet seasons, surface velocities and particulate accumulation were measured in upper Shark River Slough in Everglades National Park. Landscape characteristics such as elevation, plant density and biomass also were examined to determine their impact on flow characteristics and material transport. The results of this study demonstrate that the release of water during the wet season not only increases water levels, but also increased flow speeds and particulate transport and availability. Further, flow speeds were positively and significantly correlated with water level thereby enhancing particulate transport in sloughs relative to ridges especially during peak flow periods. Our results also indicate that the distribution of biomass in the water column, including floating plants and periphyton, affects velocity magnitude and shape of vertical profiles, especially in the sloughs where Utricularia spp. and periphyton mats are more abundant. Plot clearing experiments suggest that the presence of surface periphyton and Utricularia exert greater control over flow characteristics than the identity (i.e., sawgrass or spike rush) or density of emergent macrophytes, two parameters frequently incorporated into models describing flow through vegetated canopies. Based on these results, we suggest that future modeling efforts must take the presence of floating biomass, such as Utricularia, and presence of periphyton into consideration when describing particulate transport.

Towards sustainable transport: A comparison of demographic and behavioural characteristics of Finnish and international car sharing users

Strong evidence suggests that the climate is changing and that these changes are largely caused by human activities. A consensus exists among researchers that human activity is causing global warming and that actions to mitigate global warming need to be taken swiftly. The transportation sector, which relies heavily on fossil fuel burning and primarily oil, is one of the big contributors to air pollution problems at local, regional and global levels. It is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions and is estimated to be responsible for nearly a quarter of global energyrelated carbon dioxide emissions. Car sharing is a mobility solution encouraging its users to decrease private car usage in favour of communal transit and environmental goals. The idea of car sharing originates from the aspiration to decrease personal car ownership and to reduce vehicle distance travelled. This thesis seeks to complement the understanding of Finnish car sharing users and their usage through better categorization. Through better categorization and segmentation of Finnish car sharing users the thesis seeks to provide information for improved marketing insight. Research is done on the demographic and behavioural characteristics of Finnish car sharing users and they are compared with international findings about the characteristics of International car sharing users. The main research problem is Are Finnish car sharing users similar to international ones? A theoretical research framework on the determinants of individual car sharing usage is built based on international research about demographic and behaviouristic characteristics. After this a quantitative survey is performed to the customers of a Finnish car sharing organization. The data analysed in the thesis consist out of 532 answers received from the car sharing organizations customers. The data is analysed with descriptive and other exploratory methods, which create an understanding of Finnish car sharing users. At the end of the analysis the demographic and behavioural characteristics of Finnish car sharing users are compared with international ones. The research findings of the thesis indicate that the demographic and behavioural characteristics of Finnish car sharing usage largely follow those of their international counterparts. Thanks to the thesis results the car sharing organization is able to better target their customers through improved marketing insight.

Effects of fare collection policy on operating characteristics of a Brisbane busway station

Transit agencies across the world are increasingly shifting their fare collection mechanisms towards fully automated systems like the smart card. One of the objectives in implementing such a system is to reduce the boarding time per passenger and hence reduce the overall dwell time for the buses at the bus stops/bus rapid transit (BRT) stations. TransLink, the transit authority responsible for public transport management in South East Queensland, has introduced ‘GoCard’ technology using the Cubic platform for fare collection on its public transport system. In addition to this, three inner city BRT stations on South East Busway spine are operating as pre-paid platforms during evening peak time. This paper evaluates the effects of these multiple policy measures on operation of study busway station. The comparison between pre and post policy scenarios suggests that though boarding time per passenger has decreased, while the alighting time per passenger has increased slightly. However, there is a substantial reduction in operating efficiency was observed at the station.

Modeling study on transport organization methods choice of highway rapid passenger transport in China

Some new types of mathematical model among four key techno - economic indexes of highway rapid passenger through transportation were established based on the principles of transportation economics. According to the research on the feasible solutions to the associated parameters which were then compared to the actual value, found some limitation in the existing transport organization method. In order to conquer that, two new types of transport organization method, namely CD (Collecting and Distributing) Method and Relay Method were brought forward. What’s more, a further research was down to estimate their characteristics, such as feasibilities, operation flows, applicability fields, etc. This analysis proves the two methods can offset the shortage of rapid passenger through transportation. To ensure highway rapid passenger transport develop harmoniously, a three-stage development targets was suggested to fuse different organization methods.