Articles de revues sur le sujet « Distribution des films – Suède – 2000- »

We had previously reported on a surface analysis investigation of electrochemically synthesized, both oxidized and reduced, polypyrrole-poly-4-styrenesulfonate free-standing films (Sin et al., 2000). We apply the same techniques that we used earlier (Sin et al., 2000) to study polypyrrole-poly(vinylsulfonic acid, sodium salt) (PPy-PVS) free-standing films. Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis (ESCA) and Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) were used in the surface morphology study of oxidized and reduced PPy-PVS composite films. ESCA spectra seem to indicate that the CO and C–OH structures reduced to C–C bonds during the reduction process and also seem to reveal interesting charge transfer behavior, namely.NH+and N–H bonds to imine group (N=C) at reduced PPy-PVS free standing films. Furthermore, TOF-SIMS ion mapping also provided some interesting surface distribution of elements on PPy-PVS composite films. A comparison of surface conductivities between the two sides of both types of films was made,with conductivity measurements being carried out using the four-point probe technique.

The article is an attempt to indicate what role the rating system introduced in 1968 plays in the American film industry. The first part provides an introduction to the history of American film censorship and presents the reasons why the Production Code was replaced by a system of restrictions related to the age of viewers. The second part of the text is analytical in nature. First, the distribution of individual rating categories in the 500 most popular films from 1970–2019 is checked, and it is revealed how the understanding of individual categories has changed and how the US film industry itself has changed. The second study, based on statistical data, shows the distribution of rating categories among all films distributed in the US in the years 2000–2019. This allows us to indicate the growth in the importance of the PG and PG-13 categories and also the increase in both the number and market share of films that are not subject to the system introduced by the MPA.

A fundamental study has been performed to examine the disintegration of oil films emerging from radial holes in a rotating hollow cylinder. The configuration investigated is an abstraction of one of the droplet generation sources in an aeroengine bearing compartment; similar configurations may also occur inside gearboxes. The paper aims to contribute to both the determination of directly applicable droplet characteristics and the establishment of a database that can be used for the development of droplet generation models. Similar to a prior paper on droplet generation processes at the rim of a rotating disk (Glahn, A. et al., 2000, “Droplet Generation by Disintegration of Oil Films at the Rim of a Rotating Disk,” ASME Paper No. 2000-GT-0279.) the near-term objectives of the study are (i) to determine droplet sizes under relevant aeroengine bearing compartment operating conditions, and (ii) to measure individual droplet diameter/velocity relationships. The long-term objective is to incorporate this information into advanced CFD-based design tools. Therefore, special emphasis has been directed towards a correlation of test results that enables determination of boundary conditions for a two-phase (oil droplets/air) simulation of lubrication system components. Based on the results of the present paper, droplet flow boundary conditions in terms of mean diameter, standard deviation of the diameter distribution, starting velocity, and flow angle are available for oil droplets generated by disintegration of oil films emerging from rotating radial holes and rotating disks.

Based on the Kennard-Stepanov relation between the extinction coefficient and fluorescence inten-sity in their overlapping region, local temperatures T* are determined for several dyes and stilbene de-rivatives in PVA and PVC polymers. It is found that excitation energy excess for ṽexc >ṽ0-0 causes local heating in a rigid polymer, and the temperature difference ΔT= T*-T holds during the emission process. Such a behaviour results from slow geometrical relaxation in a polymer. Excitation energy excess is also evidenced by the fact that the intensity distribution in the emission band depends slightly on the excitation wavelength. This effect is stronger for higher energy excess

In the present manuscript, the effect of temperature on crystallisation of perovskite thin films (CH3NH3PbI3-xClx) was analysed (perovskite films are utilized to produce perovskite-based solar cells that appear to be devices with lower production costs and higher efficiency than silicon-based solar cells). To synthesise the perovskite films, four samples with precursor solution were spin coated for 45 s at 2000 rpm. After that, the samples were annealed at three different temperatures. Likewise, samples were characterised by UV/Vis Spectroscopy, Emission Spectroscopy, Fluorescence Microscopy, and ImageJ software were used to analyse crystal size. It was found that the sample annealed at 80 oC presented the highest fluorescence emission with 49539.09 CPS and the best particle size distribution. Band Gap Energy (Eg) was also calculated resulting in 1.60 ± 0.01 eV (An ideal solar cell has a band gap of 1.4 eV to absorb the maximum number of photons from the solar radiation).

Cropland abandonment because of rural depopulation or policy interventions has become a key issue in Chinese mountainous areas. One such region is the Guangxi Karst Mountainous Area (GKMA), a zone where more than 59% of total land area is hilly and arable land of a commercially viable size is almost non-existent. The rugged terrain and land fragmentation in upland karst areas result in the scarcity of land suitable for cultivation. Although depopulation and declining agriculture since 2000 within the GKMA have led to vast areas of abandoned cropland, the spatiotemporal distribution that underlies this pattern as well as its causes remain little understood. Geomorphic features also bring about differences in the distribution of settlements. Settlements with different degrees of distribution are accompanied by spatial differences in cultivated land resources, which lead to differences in the sufficiency of cultivated land resources. In this paper we provide an overview of the magnitude of the problem of arable land loss. settlements and analyze the spatial distribution and the spatial agglomeration of the cultivated land.

The paper investigates the variation of friction force (Fx) during reciprocating sliding tests on nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films. The analysis of the friction behavior during the run-in period is the focus of the study. The NCD films were grown using microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (MW-PECVD) on single-crystalline diamond SCD(110) substrates. Reciprocating sliding tests were conducted under 500 and 2000 g of normal load using Si3N4 balls as a counter body. The friction force permanently varies during the test, namely Fx value can locally increase or decrease in each cycle of sliding. The distribution of friction force drops (dFx) was extracted from the experimental data using a specially developed program. The analysis revealed a power-law distribution f-µ of dFx for the early stage of the run-in with the exponent value (µ) in the range from 0.6 to 2.9. In addition, the frequency power spectrum of Fx time series follows power-law distribution f-α with α value in the range of 1.0–2.0, with the highest values (1.6–2.0) for the initial stage of the run-in. No power-law distribution of dFx was found for the later stage of the run-in and the steady-state periods of sliding with the exception for periods where a relatively extended decrease of coefficient of friction (COF) was observed. The asperity interlocking leads to the stick-slip like sliding at the early stage of the run-in. This tribological behavior can be related to the self-organized criticality (SOC). The emergence of dissipative structures at the later stages of the run-in, namely the formation of ripples, carbonaceous tribolayer, etc., can be associated with the self-organization (SO).

Many of the electrical, mechanical, and electrochemical properties of diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings are determined by the amount of sp3 bonding. Correlations of bonding and properties are important in efforts to optimize coatings for specific applications. DLC thin films were grown at LANL by plasma deposition and subsequently ion implanted with N or Ar. Cross-sectioned TEM specimens were characterized with a Gatan imaging filter (GIF) interfaced to a LaB6 Philips CM30T at the ORNL SHaRE User Facility. For elemental distribution maps the following conditions were used: incident beam divergence α = 2.9 mrad, collection angle β = 4.8 mrad, slit width ΔE = 30 eV, exposure times of typically 5 s, 2x-binned 512×512 images, and TEM magnification ∼2000. The standard 3-window method was used for producing elemental maps with AE-r background extrapolation; 2-window jump-ratio images were also produced.

This work investigates the effect of the hole transport layer (HTL) thickness of Spiro-OMeTAD on the electrical transport properties in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Spiro-OMeTAD films were obtained by the spin-coating method at centrifuge rotation speeds from 2000 to 7000 rpm. The thickness and morphology of the Spiro-OMeTAD films were studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM). From the obtained AFM image data, an increase in the surface root mean square (rms) value is observed with decreasing film thickness. A decrease in film thickness leads to an increase in Energy gap (Eg) from 2.97 eV to 3.01 eV. We observe that at a layer thickness of 260 nm, the efficiency of the cells reaches its maximum value; further increasing the layer thickness reduces the efficiency. Analysis of the impedance spectra of PSCs showed that the optimal layer thickness reduces the HTL resistance and increases the recombination resistance at the perovskite/HTL interface, which increases the effective lifetime of charge carriers. Images of the surface and current distribution of Spiro-OMeTAD on the surface of the perovskite layer were studied. A non-uniform current distribution on the surface of the samples was revealed, the observed spots with high conductivity are interpreted as perovskite quantum dots, which have better photovoltaic characteristics.

This work is devoted to determination of characteristics of hydrogen effusion from SiH bonds in Si rich silicon oxynitride (SRON) films, obtained by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, as a result of thermal anneals at temperatures from 400 to 800°C. The values of the concentrations of SiH bonds in HSi (Si3nOn) (0 n 3) complexes contributing to the structure of SRON films are obtained from the analysis of infrared absorption spectra in the range of 2000-2400 cm1. The kinetics of the decrease of SiH concentrations as a result of anneals is described in the framework of a model with distributed activation energy of hydrogen emission. The median value and the mean-square deviation of this distribution as well as the attempt frequencies of SiH bond breaks are determined from the comparison of experimental and calculated SiH concentrations in SRON films. These characteristics are compatible with such characteristics found for the case of the depassivation of PbH centers at the Si/SiO2 interfaces. Obtained results are useful for the controlled formation of the layers of Si nanocrystals in dielectric matrix for Si based tandem solar cells applications.

The effects of covering the orchard floor with Extenday™ or Solarmate™ reflective films on fruit color, fruit quality, canopy light distribution, orchard temperature, and profitability of ‘Mondial Gala’ apples (Malus ×domestica) were evaluated over a 3-year period (2000–02) at Lleida (northeastern Spain). Reflective film was laid down 5 weeks before commercial harvest. Photosynthetically active radiation in the lowest part of the tree (1 m aboveground level) increased by 34% and 56%, for Solarmate™ and Extenday™ films, respectively, compared with the control. Fruit color, measured with a portable tristimulus colorimeter, significantly increased on both sides of the fruit (with lower values of L* and hue) when using the film. A higher proportion of red blush over the fruit surface was observed for the fruit in the film treatments. Based on the fruit size and color required to meet European Union grade standards, the use of Extenday™ or Solarmate™ resulted in an increase of 26% and 17%, respectively, when compared with the control, for the number of fruit picked at first harvest. Season clearly affected fruit color development, whereas harvest date, fruit firmness, fruit size, soluble solid concentration, titratable acidity, and maturity were not consistently affected by the use of reflective film. Despite the advance in fruit color, the starch score did not appear to be affected by the use of film. Based on current fruit prices for the study period, both types of film increased orchard profitability compared with the control, but the long-term benefit of this technique will largely depend on fruit prices.

The effects of covering the orchard floor with Extenday™ or Solarmate™ reflective films on fruit color, fruit quality, canopy light distribution, orchard temperature, and profitability of ‘Mondial Gala’ apples (Malus ×domestica) were evaluated over a 3-year period (2000–02) at Lleida (northeastern Spain). Reflective film was laid down 5 weeks before commercial harvest. Photosynthetically active radiation in the lowest part of the tree (1 m aboveground level) increased by 34% and 56%, for Solarmate™ and Extenday™ films, respectively, compared with the control. Fruit color, measured with a portable tristimulus colorimeter, significantly increased on both sides of the fruit (with lower values of L* and hue) when using the film. A higher proportion of red blush over the fruit surface was observed for the fruit in the film treatments. Based on the fruit size and color required to meet European Union grade standards, the use of Extenday™ or Solarmate™ resulted in an increase of 26% and 17%, respectively, when compared with the control, for the number of fruit picked at first harvest. Season clearly affected fruit color development, whereas harvest date, fruit firmness, fruit size, soluble solid concentration, titratable acidity, and maturity were not consistently affected by the use of reflective film. Despite the advance in fruit color, the starch score did not appear to be affected by the use of film. Based on current fruit prices for the study period, both types of film increased orchard profitability compared with the control, but the long-term benefit of this technique will largely depend on fruit prices.

Purpose - This study examines the pivotal role of local expert reviewers in the financial success of imported foreign films (Hollywood movies) within the Chinese market. It integrates signaling theory and gatekeeping scholarship to examine how these intermediaries reduce mainstream uncertainty. We hypothesize local expert reviewers to better grasp spaces for resonance between imported films and local preferences compared to foreign critics. Moreover, we examine the moderating roles of films attributes such as production scale, prestigious awards, and local adaptation strategies. Design/Methodology/Approach - We test hypothesized relationships and contingencies via OLS regressions on box office performance spanning 500 top-grossing Hollywood studio imports in China from 2000 2017 with data from multiple sources. Findings - The OLS regressions reveal that local expert reviewers significantly influence cross-border film success, with the impact moderated by production budgets and awards, but potentially diminished by cultural adaptation. Research Implications - Our study unpacks market drivers and product-level contingencies around imported creative products amidst mainstream uncertainty. The findings contribute to international business literature and cultural business by showcasing the nuanced impact of local cultural intermediaries on the financial performance of foreign cultural products. This research underscores the importance of local expert opinions in navigating the complex landscape of global content distribution and consumption, offering valuable insights for content creators and marketers aiming to optimize the global reach of products.

Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) is a technology that is currently used for most packaged salads and fresh-cut vegetables, and to a lesser extent, fresh-cut fruit such as cantaloupe (Cucumis melo L.), pineapple [Ananas comosus L. (Merr.)], and apple (Malus ×domestica Borkh.). In addition, about 750 million lb (340,200 Mg) of strawberries (Fragaria ×ananassa Duch.), raspberries (Rubus idaeus L.) and sweet cherries (Prunus avium L.) are distributed in MAP annually. The fresh produce packaging industry has developed new films to respond to increased produce consumption and changes in the use of film packaging within different produce marketing segments. The produce film industry sold 60 million lb (27,200 Mg) of film in 1994, and in 2000 it is forecasted to sell 110 million lb (49,900 Mg), an increase of 83%. The distribution of film usage has also changed since 1994 when film consumption patterns were as follows: 20% [12 million lb (5,400 Mg)] retail, 15% [9 million lb (4,100 Mg)] warehouse clubstores, and 65% [39 million lb (17,700 Mg)] food service. In 2000 it is projected that consumption patterns will be as follows: 25% [27.5 million lb (12,500 Mg)] retail, 20% [22 million lb (10,000 Mg)] warehouse clubstores, and 55% [60.5 million lb (27,400 Mg)] food service. These changes represent a 10% shift in film market segment usage patterns away from food service applications to an increase of 5% for each of the retail and warehouse clubstore segments.

The study of ferromagnetism (FM) in non-cubic semiconductor oxides such as defective TiO2 is attractive due to their applications in photocatalysis [1]. FM can be activated in TiO2 nanomaterials by promoting oxygen vacancies (VO) located in paramagnetic defected sites Ti3+VOTi4+. In this context, the VO can induce in Ti3+-doped TiO2 structures remarkable magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) of 6.51x106 erg/cm3, thus indicating the magnetic saturation should be achieved at magnetic fields (MFs) of ~425 gauss [2,3]. Therefore, magnetostriction can be observed in ferromagnetic TiO2 films as a phenomenon in which their dimensions and shapes are changed when they are magnetized. In this work, stainless steel mesh electrodes (ss) were modified by nanoparticulate TiO2 films (ssTiO2) enriched by Ti3+VOTi4+ sites, to gain an understanding of the effects of magnetostriction on the photocatalytic properties of ferromagnetic TiO2 electrodes. In this way, MFs having intensities (H) of 125, 250, 500, 1000, and 2000 gauss were applied to the ssTiO2 electrodes for 80 min under UV light illumination for increasing the number of Ti3+VOTi4+ sites. Our results revealed that the magnetic lines promoted compression of the TiO2 structure when achieving pressures p>4.67 GPa for H>425 gauss in p=1/2(MAE/4p gauss2)H 2. Consequently, the degree of disorder (0<b<1) of the electron traps at the intra-bandgap state's distribution along the thickness-axis(i.e. the x-axis) of TiO2 films decreased significantly because the fraction of trapped electrons f trap(x) at the quasi-Fermi level EF(x) was maximized according to f trap(x)=m[em (E F (x)-E F (0))-1], where m=kT/b (k and T are the Boltzmann constant and the absolute temperature) [4,5]. Later, it was observed a significant increase of trapped holes able to carry out the direct photocatalytic oxidation of aqueous orange G (without electron scavenger’s assistance, e.g. gaseous O2). On the other hand, the photogeneration of oxidant •OH radicals decreased dramatically while H increased [6]. [1] Y. Bian et al., RCS Adv., 11(2021)6284.; [2] D. Kim et al., J. Phys.: Condens. Matter,21(2009)195405.; [3] B. Shao et al., J. Appl. Phys.,115(2014)17A915. [4] N. Kopidakis et al., J. Phys. Chem. B, 107(2003)11307. [5] J. van de Lagemaat et al., J. Phys. Chem. B,104(2000)4292. [6] K.-I Ishibashi et al., J.Photochem.Photobiol.A,134(2000)139-142. Acknowledgements The authors thank the National Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT) Mexico for the funding support (grants CB No. 258789 and FOINS No. 3838). JIVN thanks CONACyT for his doctoral fellowship support (grant No. 893260).

The film industry is a creative industry in which novelty is an essential aspect. As a consequence, it is characterized by high levels of uncertainty for both producer and consumer. Yet the firms that dominate global film distribution have remained remarkably stable over the last century. The ability to transform uncertainty into risk, and to manage these risks effectively, has arguably been the outstanding achievement of major American film studios since the 1920s. This article examines how the risk management strategies of these firms have evolved over time, with a particular focus on the growing prevalence of sequels during the last 30 years. We analyse data on the box-office earnings and budgets of over 4000 films released between 1988 and 2015 and find that sequels have become an increasingly important source of industry profits since c.2000. We place this trend in historical context, and argue that while sequels themselves are not new, their role within film portfolios has changed, and that this represents a distinctive approach to risk management within the industry.

This article aims to answer the following 3 questions: 1) How is the development of cinema in Palu City?; 2) How is the influence of cinema on the people of Palu City?; and 3) Why does the presence of cinema produce a new cultural identity in the people of Palu City? The problems in this article are solved using historical methodologies and anthropological approaches. The results of this study indicate that: 1) In the period between 1951-1990 the development of cinema was only in the form of an increase in number, then in 1991 there was one cinema that was different from previous cinemas so that it could create a discourse on traditional and modern cinema and the difference was the shape of the building, facilities, and film distribution network. However, without distinguishing between traditional and modern cinemas, all of them stopped operating at the end of 2000 because there were so many alternative media for film screenings; 2) Cinema as popular culture can increase and have an influence on the consumption of fashion, music, and especially films to the behavior of the people in Palu City; 3) Cinema, in the process of presenting a new cultural identity there are several phases in certain periods in society, namely initially only as popular culture (1951–1989), the second learning space (1984–1998), the third non-privacy space (1990–2000), then these three things become markers that cinema, which is only space, can form a new cultural identity in society.

An important mechanism reducing the lifetime of the deepdrawing tools is material transfer from the workpiece to the tool, resulting in the buildup of lumps on the tool surface. In this study, a lump growth model, based on transfer mechanisms observed in experiments, is developed. The development of the summit height distribution of the tool surface is calculated from the growth behavior of the individual lumps. Important parameters influencing material transfer are determined from the calculated summit height distributions. It follows that lump growth can be decreased and, under certain conditions prevented, by a higher (surface) hardness of the workpiece, a lower roughness of the tool surface, a lower nominal contact pressure, and a lower shear strength of the interface. These results are in general agreement with results obtained from experiments. Experimental results are presented in an accompanying paper (de Rooij and Schipper, 2000).

Due to their inherent ability to swell in the presence of aqueous solutions, hydrogels offer a means for the delivery of therapeutic agents in a range of applications. In the context of designing functional tissue-engineering scaffolds, their role in providing for the diffusion of nutrients to cells is of specific interest. In particular, the facility to provide such nutrients over a prolonged period within the core of a 3D scaffold is a critical consideration for the prevention of cell death and associated tissue-scaffold failure. The work reported here seeks to address this issue via fabrication of hybrid 3D scaffolds with a component fabricated from mixed-molecular-weight hydrogel formulations capable of storing and releasing nutrient solutions over a predetermined time period. To this end, poly(ethylene) glycol diacrylate hydrogel blends comprising mixtures of PEGDA-575 Mw and PEGDA-2000 Mw were prepared via UV polymerization. The effects of addition of the higher-molecular-weight component and the associated photoinitiator concentration on mesh size and corresponding fluid permeability have been investigated by diffusion and release measurements using a Theophylline as an aqueous nutrient model solution. Fluid permeability across the hydrogel films has also been determined using a Rhodamine B solution and associated fluorescence measurements. The results indicate that addition of PEGDA-2000 Mw to PEGDA-575 Mw coupled with the use of a specific photoinitiator concentration provides a means to change mesh size in a hydrogel network while still retaining an overall microporous material structure. The range of mesh sizes created and their distribution in a 3D construct provides for the conditions required for a more prolonged nutrient release profile for tissue-engineering applications.

The effects of various oxygen flows on indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) based thin-film transistors (TFTs) with different channel width sizes have been investigated. The IGZO nano-films exhibited amorphous phase while the bandgap energy and sheet resistance increased with increasing oxygen flow rate. The electrical characteristics were evaluated with different sizes in channel width using fixed channel length. The distributions in terms of threshold voltage and current on–off level along the different channel width sizes have been discussed thoroughly. The minimum distribution of threshold voltage was observed at an oxygen flow rate of 1 sccm. The TFT electrical properties have been achieved, using an oxygen flow rate of 1 sccm with 500 µm channel width, the threshold voltage, ratio of on-current to off-current, sub-threshold swing voltage and field effect mobility to be 0.54 V, 106, 0.15 V/decade and 12.3 cm2/V·s, respectively. On the other hand, a larger channel width of 2000 µm could further improve the ratio of on-current to off-current and sub-threshold swing voltage to 107 and 0.11 V/decade. The optimized combination of oxygen flow and channel width showed improved electrical characteristics for TFT applications.

An influence of lubrication conditions on the performance characteristics of sector-shaped pad thrust bearings, which are subjected to the effects of both turbulence and fluid film inertia, is investigated theoretically and experimentally. The momentum equations in terms of pressure and stream function are solved by applying a numerical calculation technique combining control volume integration and the Newton-Raphson linearization method, under three kinds of inlet boundary conditions in relation to three types of lubrication conditions, namely: the flooded condition, the over flooded condition, and the starved condition. Sample numerical results pertaining to the pressure distribution, load carrying capacity and inlet flow rate are obtained for θ = 60 deg, R1 = 0.5, Re = 2000, Re* = 0 to 1.6 and A = 1.0 to 2.0, and the results of the load-carrying capacity are compared with experimental results. From the theoretical and experimental results, the relationships between the lubrication conditions and the static performance characteristics of the bearings are clarified.

As a natural van der Waals crystal, α-MoO3 has excellent in-plane hyperbolic properties and essential nanophotonics applications. However, its tunable properties are generally neglected. Here, we achieve effective modulation of spontaneous emission (SE) from a single-layer flat plate by changing the crystal directions. Numerical results and theoretical analysis show that α-MoO3 exhibits good tunability when the crystal directions of α-MoO3 are different in y– z or x– y planes. A modulation factor of more than three orders of magnitude is obtained at 634 cm−1. This phenomenon is caused by the excitation of hyperbolic phonon polaritons in α-MoO3 at specific bands. However, when the crystal directions of α-MoO3 are different in the x– z plane, the SE of the material exhibits strong angle independence. Additionally, for the semi-infinite α-MoO3 flat structure, we determine the distribution of the modulation factor of SE using the wavenumber and rotation angle. Finally, we extend the calculation results from semi-infinite media to finite thickness films. We obtain the general evolution law of the peak angle of the modulation factor with thickness, increasing the modulation factor to approximately 2000, which exceeds the maximum modulation factor observed in previous works by 48 times. We believe this work could guide the SE modulation of anisotropic materials and benefit the field of micro-/nano-lasers and quantum computing.

The study of ferromagnetism (FM) in semiconductor oxides having non-cubic crystalline structures (e.g. TiO2) is attractive due to their applications in spintronics [1]. FM can be activated in TiO2 nanomaterials by promoting oxygen vacancies (VO) located in paramagnetic defected sites Ti3+VOTi4+. In this context, the VO can induce in Ti3+-doped TiO2 structures remarkable magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) of 6.51x106 erg/cm3, thus indicating the magnetic saturation (Ms) should be achieved by applying external magnetic fields (MFs) of ~425 gauss [2,3]. Therefore, magnetostriction can be observed in ferromagnetic TiO2 films containing Ti3+VOTi4+ sites as a phenomenon in which their dimensions and shapes are changed when they are magnetized. In this work, black dye-sensitized solar cells (BD-SSC) were prepared using TiO2 nanoparticle films enriched by Ti3+VOTi4+ sites, to gain an understanding of the effects of magnetostriction on the photovoltaic responses of BD-SSC. In this way, photocurrent density-cell potential plots were obtained for the BD-SSC in the absence and presence of MFs having intensities of 125, 250, 500, 1000, and 2000 gauss. MFs lines were parallel applied to the surface of the BD-sensitized TiO2 photoanodes. Our results indicated that the photogenerated electron transport through the dyed TiO2 photoanodes was not limited by electron transfer to I3 - anions at the electrolyte in the absence or the presence of MFs, because all the values for the open-circuit potential (-Eoc ~ 0.553±0.014 V) remain constant. On the contrary, the obtained values for the short-circuit current density Jsc and the global conversion efficiency, revealed that both parameters increased as a function of the MFs intensities, thus indicating that the magnetic lines were responsible for decreasing the degree of disorder (0<b<1) of the electron-traps at the intra-bandgap state's distribution of the TiO2 film (Jsc is proportional to Q1/ b where Q is the number of trapped electrons) [4,5]. [1] M. Stiller et al., Front. Phys., 11(2023)1124924.; [2] D. Kim et al., J. Phys.: Condens. Matter, 21(2009)195405.; [3] B. Shao et al., J. Appl. Phys., 115(2014)17A915. [4] N. Kopidakis et al., J. Phys. Chem. B, 107(2003)11307. [5] J. van de Lagemaat et al., J. Phys. Chem. B, 104(2000)4292. Acknowledgements The authors thank the National Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT) Mexico for the funding support (grants CB No. 258789 and FOINS No. 3838). JIVN thanks CONACyT for his doctoral fellowship support (grant No. 893260).

A theoretical model is presented to solve the transient, two-dimensional, compressible Reynolds equation for a gas bearing. The Newton-Raphson method is used on the governing nonlinear Reynolds equaion while the Galerkin’s method is employed to solve the resulting linear equations for the correction term. The numerical solution of the pressure distribution of an infinitely long, plane-wedge, slider bearing compares very well with the analytical (exact) solution. This theoretical model is then used to calculate the trajectory of a ringless piston within the cylinder of an I. C. engine under a given dynamic loading. The flexible polyhedron unconstrained minimization method is used to find the equilibrium position of the piston within the cylinder for each crankangle. It was found that a 40 mm long ringless piston can support a uniform side load of about 50 Newtons at 2000 r/min running on a gas film. However, the same piston can sustain a nonuniform side load with a much higher peak value (three to five times the uniform load) which lasts approximately 20 to 30 degrees of crankangle only. The sustainable side load by gas lubrication is much lower than the peak piston side load of conventional internal combustion engines.

Based on theoretical studies of the phenomenon of cultural memory (M. Halbwax, F.R. Ankersmit, J. Zerubavel), the author analyzes the essence and mechanisms of commemoration in contemporary Russian military-themed cinema. The relevance of the study is due to the wide public interest in domestic military cinema, its social significance and the growing number of commemorative practices (which include cinematographic works) in honor of the anniversary dates of victory in the Great Patriotic War. The empirical base of the study is founded on the analysis of broad Russian film distribution and the domestic film festival industry 2000-2019.Working with the phenomenon of the past, military cinema inevitably creates its on-screen interpretation, which, as a result of wide circulation, becomes an act of memory policy aimed at the formation and maintenance of social identity. In this connection, the aim of the study is to identify the axiological component of Russian military cinema of the 21st century by analyzing the value programs of the movie heroes. Tracing the essence and logic of the formation of the Soviet political «myth of war» in cinema, the author comes to the conclusion that this paradigm of war record representation is still present on the screen, taking the form of commemorative cinema. The axiological opposition to this trend is the segment of revisionist cinema, which does not reproduce the Soviet myth, but reinterprets and problematizes the events of the military past. The analysis of revisionist films reveals new options for representing the traumatic military experience on the screen. Finally, conclusions are drawn about the axiological component of commemorative and revisionist cinema.

Various scientific publication’s arrays visibility (visibility) determines greater or lesser chances for attracting this field scientist’s and specialist’s attention and interest, their response, for the likelihood increasing publications author’s inviting for exchange views and for future joint research. Visibility also determines the general world scientific community’s picture (“image”) and the domestic science in this area development level, which, to a certain extent, forms its scientific world prestige. The article discusses the domestic publications in the field of science “Physics and Astronomy” (according to SCOPUS data for 1980–2020) array’s visibility dynamics development from this area specialist’s point of view. This arrays dynamic’s parameters are analyzed in terms of number of journals filling, the ratio of domestic and foreign journals, the number of publications on these components, their conditional “quality”, determined by these journals scientometric’s characteristics (divided into quartiles). It is shown that the array of publications increased during this period from 878 to 17913 (20,4 times), but the number of the array journals increased only 7.2 times (from 102 to 730), due to a significant average publications number by one journal title per year increase from 8,7 to 24.6 (i.e. 2,8 times).It is determined that the array underwent significant changes in the period of the 80–90s of the last century and came to relative number of parameters 2000-s stabilization – the annual publications per journal title number, the percentage of foreign and domestic sources used (journals), as well as the distribution of publications balance between these groups of journals. This balance is near to a 50/50 ratio with a significantly larger share of array’s foreign journals than domestic ones.The existence of a certain “core” of journals was revealed, which, which includes less than 40% in terms of the number of journals, and includes from ~ 80% to 90% of all annual publications, that points journals should be attracted, first of all, to the attention of library and information specialists, ensuring the convenience of work users.The conditional “quality” of the “core” journals array was assessed (according to the level of quartiles to which these journals are assigned, according to the SCOPUS database data for the corresponding years). This quality is defined as quite high – more than 60% of journals of 1–2 quartiles.

We have investigated the laser micromachining of microsieves with 3D micropore geometries. We hypothesize that mechanical cues resulting from the positioning and machining of ablated holes inside a pyramidal microcavity can influence the direction of neuronal outgrowth and instruct stem cell-derived neural networks in their differentiation processes. We narrowed the number of variations in device fabrication by developing a numerical model to estimate the stress distribution in a cell interacting with the laser-tailored unique 3D geometry of a microsieve’s pore. Our model is composed of two components: a continuous component (consisting of the membrane, cytoplasm, and nucleus) and a tensegrity structural component (consisting of the cytoskeleton, nucleoskeleton, and intermediate filaments). The final values of the mechanical properties of the components are selected after evaluating the shape of the continuous cell model when a gravity load is applied and are compared to the shape of a cell on a glass substrate after 3 h. In addition, a physical criterion implying that the cell should not slip through a hole with a bottom aperture of 3.5 μm is also set as a constraint. Among all the possible one- or multi-hole configurations, six cases appeared promising in influencing the polarization process of the cell. These configurations were selected, fabricated, and characterized using scanning electron microscopy. Fabricated microsieves consist of a 20 μm thick Norland Optical Adhesive 81 (NOA81) foil with an array of inverted pyramidal microcavities, which are opened by means of KrF 248 nm laser ablation. By changing the position of the laser beam spot on the cavities (center, slope, or corner) as well as the direction of laser beam with respect to the NOA81 microcavity foil (top side or back side), different ablation configurations yielded a variety of geometries of the 3D micropores. In the one-hole configurations when the shot is from the top side, to make the desired diameter of 3.5 μm (or less) of an opening, 1500 laser pulses are sufficient for the center and slope openings. This requirement is around 2000 laser pulses when the aperture is positioned in the corner. In back side ablation processes, the required number of pulses for through-holes at the center, slope, and corner positions are 1200, 1800, and 1800 pulses, respectively. In conclusion, we developed a microsieve platform that allows us to tailor the 3D topography of individual micropores according to the selection of cases guided by our numerical stress distribution models.

El Estado de Maranhão ocupa un escenario peculiar en el mercado cinematográfico brasileño. Las producciones de ficción en forma de largometrajes tuvieron sus primeras incursiones a mediados de la década de 2000. En un marco desarrollado por la investigadora em su disertación, y actualizado hasta 2022, catalogamos veintidós películas, solo seis de los cuales fueron registrados en la Agencia Brasileña de Cine. La principal metodología a utilizar será la recolección e interpretación de datos, además de entrevistas no estructuradas o no estructuradas (Eva Lakatos, 2003). Como principales resultados podemos señalar: en Maranhão el mercado es predominantemente informal con momentos ocasionales de informalidad. La conclusión inicial de nuestra investigación es que el factor económico asociado a la falta de políticas públicas, sumado a la falta de cursos de educación superior en la zona, son los principales impulsores de este incipiente escenario.

Recently, Plasma Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition (PEALD) has been investigated as an advanced semiconductor deposition method to expand the number and variety of materials other than those available in thermal ALD. The high reactivity of the plasma species at the deposition surface during PEALD has the advantage of increasing the degree of freedom of processing conditions and enabling a wider range of material properties. PEALD consists of four steps in the order of feed, 1st purge, reaction, and 2nd purge. In this reaction step, the secondary gas-phase reaction is important because the properties of the thin film vary greatly depending on the particles that arrive on the growing surface. Therefore, the particle distribution in the gas phase before arrival on the surface should be accurately predicted to estimate the film quality. Generally, the DSMC (Direct Simulation Monte Carlo) method is a commonly used method for analyzing particle distribution in the gas phase. The DSMC method requires reaction and scattering models that simulate the behavior between molecules. Variable Hard Sphere and Variable Soft Sphere are often used as the model in DSMC. These models are about molecular transport, such as molecular diffusion, and cannot deal with molecular reactions. The total collision energy model is determined for molecular reactions, but it may not accurately describe molecular reactions in non-equilibrium flow. The purpose of the study is to develop a new reaction-scattering model in non-equilibrium flow in the DSMC method for determining the particle distribution in the gas phase in the PEALD processes. Here, we focus on ammonia plasma used in the reaction step of boron nitride nanomaterial films, which are used in various applications, such as semiconductors and fine ceramics with two-dimensional and three-dimensional structures. This study focused on neutral and ionic molecules, NH3 and NH4 +, which can be the main collisional species in secondary gas-phase reactions. A molecular dynamics simulation with a reactive force field (ReaxFF) was performed. The left figure shows the simulation system of NH3 and NH4 + collisions. The periodic boundary conditions were applied to the simulation box for all directions in the size of 100 Å × 100 Å × 100 Å. Randomly oriented NH3 and NH4 + were placed in a line at an initial distance of 15 Å. NH4 + was given an electric charge of –0.22892 on N and 0.30723 on H. The initial translational energy of NH4 + was set at 5-60 eV, and the difference in the vertical coordinate at 0.1-5.0 Å. The collisions were sampled 2000 times. The right figure shows the calculated collision cross section, which determines whether a collision occurs or not. The collision coefficient bcoll represents the difference in the maximum vertical coordinate at which the absolute value of the scattering angle is greater than 1 degree. The collision cross section decreases as the translational energy increases because the negligible attraction-force act on NH3 and NH4 + at a long distance. When the translational energy exceeds 40 eV, the collisional cross-section no longer decreases and becomes asymptotic. The reason can be considered as follows. As the cross-section approaches 40 Å2, the collision cross section asymptotically approaches 40 Å2, regardless of the translational energy, because the attractive and repulsive forces are balanced. We compared our results with a reference model in grey color. In the reference model, Etr, 0 represents the minimum translational energy, σT,0 is the collision cross section at the minimum, Etr is the translational energy, and ω is a fitting parameter. Here, ω was set at –3.1. The reference model shows a good agreement with our results. However, the collision cross section is asymptotic above 40 eV, which may affect the results when the DSMC simulations are performed. We will apply the reaction scattering model to the DSMC method and analyze the gas-phase reaction of PEALD, including a comparison of the results of existing models. Figure 1

Nowadays, plasmonic sensors are the most widely used and commercialized label-free optical biosensors and have become a widespread tool for studying chemical/biochemical interactions. Label-free, real-time, and direct measurements are the major benefits of the plasmonic sensors, including high-throughput surface bio-functionalization strategies without amplification or pretreatment of the sample [1]. The working principle of plasmonic sensing has been extensively described and reviewed over the decades [2], however, the possibility to develop cheap, effective, and clinically-accepted biosensors has recently become available due to the development of nanotechnology. Briefly, these nanostructures can be localized or can be arranged on 2D arrays of plasmonic metasurfaces, and can be fabricated by single-layer metallic films and a combination of metallic and dielectric films. The most popular plasmonic metals are gold and silver due to their high conductivity and low dielectric losses. Generally, top-down nanofabrication methods based on laser/e-beam lithography have been used, including nanostencil lithography based on shadow-masked nano-pattering and nanoimprint lithography [3]. Although such technologies have a high potential to achieve scalable and cost-effective nanofabrication at the wafer scale, these processes maintain the following main challenge: a master nano-mold/pattern is required to transfer metasurfaces with an associated high cost. Therefore, other technologies are the subject of research that overcomes this limitation and still offer an outstanding quality of metallic films, such as TDW (thermal dewetting) and GLAD (glancing angle deposition) (Fig.1). These techniques do not require master nano-mold/patterns; consequently, they can achieve lithography-free large-scale plasmonic metasurfaces [4]. TDW and GLAD usually generate quasi-ordered plasmonic metasurfaces compared to conventional lithographic methods. In this paper, the experimental results of the optical sensing properties of the sensors developed by the utilization of the combination of these two technologies in a single system are presented. The TWD/GLAD magnetron sputtering system has been designed and manufactured based on the Kurt J. Lesker MAG-Torus magnetrons, supplied with DC/RF power sources and an ECR manipulator that enables deposition at various angles with maximal 20 rpm rotation speed and heating option up to 850oC. The system is controlled by the software that enables deposition of the samples with the same parameters which pave the way for fabrication of the sensors on the industrial scale. The optical-sensing system was built based on an ST-VIS-50 spectrometer (Ocean Optics) and Tungsten Halogen Source (360-2000 nm, 2800 K, Ocean Optics) and optical table from Thorlabs. The obtained reflectance measurement has shown that the utilization of the GLAD technique decreases the reflectance peak in comparison with samples deposited without GLAD (flat samples). At the same time, angles in the range of 82-86oC seem to be preferable for nanostructure fabrication. Additionally, the utilization of the TWD technique, i.e. deposition at lower temperatures in the range of 60-100oC (depending on the substrate) and then annealed at higher temperatures such as 250oC and 300oC in a vacuum and under argon flow in the deposition chamber led to increased normalized response. However, the experiments have shown that the optimal annealing time is between 30-45 min depending on the SPR multi-structure, for example for Ag (6nm), Ti (2nm), and Au (2nm) the 30min at 250oC seems to be the best set. For such compositions, the surface sensitivity (nm/nm) and bulk sensitivity (nm/RIU) are more or less the same - 0.9 and 300, respectively. The obtained results are very promising for developing cheap, rapid, and very effective biosensors for various applications. Therefore, the obtained results seem to be very interesting for the ECS conference audience, for example, the developed Ag/Ti/Au multi-structures can be applied in novel organ-on-a-chip platforms for LADMET (liberations, absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicology) analysis [5]. Fig. 1. Schematic diagram representation of lithography free methods for developing quasi-ordered metamaterials from left to right: Thermal dewetting and glancing angle deposition. The insert shows the chiral plasmonic nanospirals fabrication by glanced angle deposition [4]. References: [1] LC Oliveira et al., Springer, 2019. ISBN: 9783030174859 [2] VG Kravets et al., Chem. Rev. 2018, 118, 12, 5912–5951. doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrev.8b00243 [3] M. Zandieh et al., Analytical Biochemistry. 2018, 548, 96-101. doi.org/10.1016/j.ab.2018.02.023 [4] GA López-Muñoz et al., Front. Sens. 2022, 3:945525. doi: 10.3389/fsens.2022.945525 [5] J. Ramon, A. Rydosz, Human Organs-on-a-chip, 2023. ISBN: 9780443153846 The work was financially supported by the National Science Centre, Poland Sonata-BIS project no 2022/46/E/ST7/00008. Figure 1

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is becoming increasingly important to realize high-accurate atomic-scale deposition processes in semiconductor industry, where device dimensions approach atomic scale with the advances of the miniaturization. Basically, ALD is a process of forming a film using self-limited cyclic reactions, where precursor gas, purging gas, reaction gas, and purging gas are introduced sequentially [1]. To realize high-quality ALD with high-throughput, the reaction cycle should be shortened. However, this may cause incomplete gas replacement due to residual gas, resulting in the degradation in process quality. To develop high-quality ALD, precise control of temporal and spatial distribution of these gases is required. Although the total gas pressure in the chamber was usually measured as process monitor, partial pressure, or concentration of precursor as well as reaction gas was not be measured so far. This makes it impossible to evaluate gas replacement characteristics in the chamber, despite its importance for developing ALD technology. Our group developed a high-sensitivity, real-time, compact gas concentration sensor using UV light absorption method for the supply system of organometallic gases having UV absorption [2]. The gas concentration can be estimated from the UV absorption using Lambert-Beer law. Recently, to develop a new process monitoring tool in ALD, we apply this technique to in-situ measurement of precursor gas in the chamber. In this study, temporal variation of concentration of Tetrakis(ethylmethylamino)zirconium (TEMAZ) in cyclic introduction of TEMAZ and purging Ar gas was evaluated. Here, TEMAZ is widely used as a Zr precursor in ALD for zirconia films deposition, mainly in DRAM fabrication [3]. Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the experimental system used in this study. TEMAZ was supplied by a bubbling method. At the downstream of the TEMAZ tank, upstream pressure controller (UPCUS) was equipped to control the pressure in the tank to be constant. An inner diameter of a test chamber was 200 mm, and TEMAZ and purging Ar were supplied using a shower plate installed at the upside of the chamber. A densitometer using UV absorption method consisted of an UV light emitting part and an UV photometer, and these were placed at opposite side of the chamber. UV light with a wavelength of 250 nm, which corresponds to the absorption of TEMAZ, was used. Two densitometers (hereafter denoted as UVH and UVL) were set at 10mm and 60mm below the shower plate, respectively. A pressure gauge was also set at 10mm below the shower plate to measure total pressure in the chamber. In the measurement, the valve operation and data acquisition were conducted by a computer with a sampling period of 10 ms. Fig. 2(a) shows time evolution of chamber pressure and absorbance of UVH (which approximately proportional to TEMAZ partial pressure) in the case that TEMAZ and purging Ar were introduced alternatively every second for 50 times. TEMAZ was supplied to the chamber with diluted Ar (100 sccm) with a TEMAZ concentration of 2000 ppm. Purging Ar flow rate was 1500 sccm. In Fig. 2(b), extended graph of Fig. 2(a) for time range from 90 to 96 s were shown. It is clearly found that behavior of UVH signal and the chamber pressure was different, where UVH absorbance signal increased at TEMAZ introduction, and rapidly decreased when Ar purge started whereas the chamber pressure increased due to the Ar introduction. Such behavior cannot be obtained only from the pressure measurement. Fig. 3 compares UVH and UVL absorbance signals for 1 cycle of TEMAZ and purging Ar introductions. It can be seen that UVH absorbance began to increase at approximately 80.2 s (0.2 s after the TEMAZ introduction), and UHL absorbance began to increase with a delay at approximately 80.6 s (0.6 s after the TEMAZ introduction). This suggested that down flow of TEMAZ could be observed. The results demonstrated validity of the UV absorption method to evaluate temporal and spatial distribution of precursor gas, and this technology will greatly contribute to developing future ALD technology. [1] R. W. Johnson et al., Materials today, 17 (2014) 236. [2] H. Ishii et al., Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., 58 (2019) SBBL04. [3] S. K. Kim and C. S. Hwang, Electrochem. Solid-State Lett., 11 (2008) G9. Figure 1

In the Garden of EdenThe covers of the first three volumes of Kuml show photographs of fine Danish antiquities. Inside the volumes have articles on the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age in Jutland, which is to be expected as Kuml is published by the Jutland Archaeological Society. However, in 1954 the scene is moved to more southern skies. This year, the cover is dominated by a date palm with two huge burial mounds in the background. In side the book one reads no less than six articles on the results from the First Danish Archaeological Bahrain Expedition. P.V. Glob begins with: Bahrain – Island of the Hundred Thousand Burial Mounds, The Flint Sites of the Bahrain Desert, Temples at Barbar and The Ancient Capital of Bahrain, followed by Bibby’s Five among Bahrain’s Hundred Thousand Burial Mounds and The Well of the Bulls. The following years, reports on excavations on Bahrain and later in the sheikhdoms of Qatar, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi are on Kuml’s repertoire.However, it all ends wit h the festschrift to mark Glob’s 60th anniversary, Kuml 1970, which has three articles on Arab archaeology and a single article in 1972. For the past thirty years almost, the journal has not had a single article on Arabia. Why is that? Primarily because the character of the museum’s work in the Arabian Gulf changed completely. The pioneers’ years of large-scale reconnaissance and excavations were succeeded by labourous studies of the excavated material – the necessary work preceding the final publications. Only in Abu Dhabi and Oman, Karen Frifelt carried on the pioneer spirit through the 1970s and 1980s, but she mainly published her results in in ternational, Englishlanguage journals.Consequently, the immediate field reports ended, but the subsequent research into Arab archaeology – carried out at the writing desk and with the collections of finds– still crept into Kuml. From 1973 , the journal contained a list of the publications made by the Jutland Archaeological Society (abbreviated JASP), and here, the Arab monographs begin to make their entry. The first ones are Holger Kapel’s Atlas of the Stone Age Cultures of Qatar from 1967 and Geoffrey Bibby’s survey in eastern Saudi Arabia from 1973. Then comes the Hellenistic excavations on the Failaka island in Kuwait with Hans Erik Mathiesen’s treatise on the terracotta figurines (1982), Lise Hannestad’s work on the ceramics (1983) and Kristian Jeppesen’s presentation of the temple and the fortifications (1989). A similar series on the Bronze Age excavations on Failaka has started with Poul Kjærum’s first volume on the stamp and cylinder seals (1983) and Flemming Højlund’s presentation of the ceramics (1987). The excavations on the island of Umm an-Nar in Abu Dhabi was published by Karen Frifelt in two volumes on the settlement (1991) and the graves (1995), and the ancient capital of Bahrain was analysed by H. Hellmuth Andersen and Flemming Højlund in two volumes on the northern city wall and the Islamic fort (1994) and the central, monumental buildings (1997) respectively.More is on its way! A volume on Islamic finds made on Bahrain has just been made ready for printing, and the Bronze Age temples at the village of Barbar is being worked up. Danish and foreign scholars are preparing other volumes, but the most important results of the expeditions to the Arabian Gulf have by now been published in voluminous series.With this, an era has ended, and Moesgård Museum’s 50th anniversary in 1999 was a welcome opportunity of looking back at the Arabian Gulf effort through the exhibition Glob and the Garden ef Eden. The Danish Bahrain expeditions and to consider what will happen in the future.How then is the relation ship between Moesgård Museum and Bahrain today, twenty-three years after the last expedition – now that most of the old excavations have been published and the two originators of the expeditions, P.V. Glob and Geoffrey Bibby have both died?In Denmark we usually consider Bahrain an exotic country with an exciting past. However, in Bahrain there is a similar fascination of Denmark and of Moesgård Museum. The Bahrain people are wondering why Danish scholars have been interested in their small island for so many years. It was probably not a coincidence when in the 1980s archaeologist and ethnographers from Moesgård Museum were invited to take part in the furnishing of the exhibitions in the new national museum of Bahrain. Today, museum staff from Arab countries consider a trip to Moesgård a near-pilgrimage: our collection of Near East artefacts from all the Gulf countries is unique, and the ethnographic collections are unusual in that they were collected with thorough information on the use, the users and the origin of each item.The Bahrain fascination of Moesgård Museum. was also evident, when the Bahrain minister of education, Abdulaziz Al-Fadl, visited the museum in connection with the opening of the Bahrain exhibition in 1999.Al-Fadl visited the museum’s oriental department, and in the photo and film archive a book with photos taken by Danish members of the expeditions to the Arabian Gulf was handed over to him. Al-Fadl was absorbed by the photos of the Bahrain of his childhood – the 1950s and 1960s – an un spoilt society very different from the modern Bahrain. His enthusiasm was not lessened when he saw a photo of his father standing next to P.V. Glob and Sheikh Salman Al Khalifa taken at the opening of Glob’s first archaeological exhibition in Manama, the capital. At a banquet given by Elisabeth Gerner Nielsen, the Danish minister of culture, on the evening following the opening of the Glob exhibition at Moesgård, Al-Fadl revealed that as a child, he had been on a school trip to the Danish excavations where – on the edge of the excavation – he had his first lesson in Bahrain’s prehistory from a Danish archaeologist (fig. 1).Another example: When attending the opening of an art exhibition at Bahrain’s Art Centre in February 1999, I met an old Bahrain painter, Abdelkarim Al-Orrayed, who turned out to be a good friend of the Danish painter Karl Bovin, who took part in Glob’s expeditions. He told me, how in 1956, Bovin had exhibited his paintings in a school in Manama. He recalled Bovin sitting in his Arabian tunic in a corner of the room, playing a flute, which he had carved in Sheikh Ibrahim’s garden.In a letter, Al-Orrayed states: ”I remember very well the day in 1956, when I met Karl Bovin for the first time. He was drawin g some narrow roads in the residential area where I lived. I followed him closely with my friend Hussain As-Suni – we were twentythree and twenty-one years old respectively. When he had finished, I invited him to my house where I showed him my drawings. He looked at them closely and gave me good advice to follow if I wanted to become a skilful artist – such as focusing on lines, form, light, distance, and shadow. He encouraged me to practice outdoors and to use different models. It was a turning point in our young artists’ lives when Hussein and I decided to follow Bovin’s instructions. We went everywhere – to the teahouses, the markets, the streets, and the countryside – and practised there, but the sea was the most fascinating phenomenon to us. In my book, An Introduction to Modern Art in Bahrain, I wrote about Bovin’s exhibitions in the 1950s and his great influence on me as an artist. Bovin’s talent inspired us greatly in rediscovering the nature and landscape on Bahrain and gave us the feeling that we had much strength to invest in art. Bovin contributed to a new start to us young painters, who had chosen the nature as our main motif.”Abdelkarim Al-Orrayed was the first Bahrain painter to live of his art, and around 1960 he opened a studio from which he sold his paintings. Two of his landscape watercolours are now at Moesgård.These two stories may have revealed that Bahrain and Moesgard Museum have a common history, which both parts value and wish to continue. The mutual fascination is a good foundation to build on and the close bonds and personal acquaintance between by now more generations is a valuable counterbalance to those tendencies that estrange people, cultures, and countries from one another.Already, more joint projects have been initiated: Danish archaeology students are taking part in excavations on Bahrain and elsewhere in the Arabic Gulf; an ethnography student is planning a long stay in a village on Bahrain for the study of parents’ expectations to their children on Bahrain as compared with the conditions in Denmark; P.V. Glob’s book, Al-Bahrain, has been translated into Arabic; Moesgård’s photos and films from the Gulf are to become universally accessible via the Internet; an exhibition on the Danish expeditions is being prepared at the National Museum of Bahrain, and so forth.Two projects are to be described in more detail here: New excavations on Bahrain that are to investigate how fresh water was exploited in the past, and the publication of a book and three CDs, Music in Bahrain, which will make Bahrain’s traditional music accessible not just to the population of Bahrain, but to the whole world.New excavations on BahrainFor millennia, Bahrain was famous for its abundance of fresh water springs, which made a belt of oases across the northern half of the island possible. Natural fertility combined with the favourable situation in the middle of the Arab Gulf made Bahrain a cultural and commercial centre that traded with the cities of Mesopotamia and the IndusValley already in the third millennium BC.Fresh water also played an important part in Bahrain’s ancient religion, as seen from ar chaeological excavations and Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets: A magnificent temple of light limestone was built over a spring, and according to old texts, water was the gods’ gift to Bahrain (Dilmun).Although fresh water had an overwhelming importance to a parched desert island, no studies have been directed towards the original ”taming” of the water on Bahrain. Therefore, Moesgård Museum is now beginning to look into the earliest irrigation techniques on the island and their significance to Bahrain’s development.Near the Bahrain village of Barbar, P.V. Glob in 1954 discovered a rise in the landscape, which was excavated during the following years. It turned out that the mound covered three different temples, built on top of and around each other. The Barbar temple was built of whitish ashlars and must have been an impressive structure. It has also gained a special importance in Near East research, as this is the first and only time that the holy spring chamber, the abzu, where the god Enki lived, has been un earthed (fig. 2).On the western side of the Barbar temple a monumental flight of steps, flank ed on both sides by cult figures, was leading through a portal to an underground chamber with a fresh water spring. In the beautiful ashlar walls of this chamber were three openings, through which water flowed. Only the eastern out flow was investigated, as the outside of an underground stonebuilt aqueduct was found a few metres from the spring chamber.East of the temple another underground aqueduct was followed along a 16-m distance. It was excavated at two points and turned out almost to have the height of a man. The floor was covered with large stones with a carved canal and the ceiling was built of equally large stones (fig. 3).No doubt the spring chamber was a central part of the temple, charge d with great importance. However, the function of the aqueducts is still unknown. It seems obvious that they were to lead the fresh water away from the source chamber, but was this part of a completely ritual arrangement, or was the purpose to transport the water to the gardens to be used for irrigation?To clarify these questions we will try to trace the continuations of the aqueducts using different tracing techniques such as georadar and magnetometer. As the sur roundings of Barbar temple are covered by several metres of shifting sand, the possibilities of following the aqueducts are fine, if necessary even across a great distance, and if they turn out to lead to old gardens, then these may be exposed under the sand.Underground water canals of a similar construction, drawing water from springs or subsoil water, have been used until modern times on Bahrain, and they are still in use in Iran and on the Arabian Peninsula, especially in Oman, where they supply the gardens with water for irrigation. They are called qanats and are usually considered built by the Persians during periods when the Achaemenid or Sassanid kings controlled Arabia (c. 500 BC-c. 600 AD). However, new excavation results from the Oman peninsula indicate that at least some canal systems date from c. 1000 BC. It is therefore of utmost interest if similar sophisticated transportation systems for water on Bahrain may be proven to date from the time of the erection of the Barbar temple, i.e. c. 2000 BC.The finds suggest that around this time Bahrain underwent dramatic changes. From being a thinly inhabited island during most of the 3rd millennium BC, the northern part of the island suddenly had extensive burial grounds, showing a rapid increase in population. At the same time the major settlement on the northern coast was fortified, temples like the one at Barbar were built, and gigantic ”royal mounds” were built in the middle of the island – all pointing at a hierarchic society coming into existence.This fast social development of Dilmun must have parallelled efficiency in the exploitation of fresh water resources for farm ing to supply a growing population with the basic food, and perhaps this explains the aqueducts by Barbar?The planned excavatio ns will be carried out in close cooperation between the National Museum of Bahrain and Aarhus University, and they are supported financially by the Carlsberg Foundation and Bahrain’s Cabinet and Information Ministry.The music of BahrainThe composer Poul Rovsing Olsen (1922-1982) was inspired by Arab and Indian music, and he spent a large part of his life studying traditional music in the countries along the Arabian Gulf. In 1958 and 1962-63 he took part in P.V. Glob’s expeditions to Arabia as a music ethnologist and in the 1970s he organised stays of long duration here (fig. 4).The background for his musical fieldwork was the rapid development, which the oil finds in the Gulf countries had started. The local folk music would clearly disappear with the trades and traditions with which they were connected.” If no one goes pearl fishing anymore, then no one will need the work songs connected to this work. And if no one marries according to tradition with festivity lasting three or sometimes five days, then no one will need the old wedding songs anymore’’.It was thus in the last moment that Rovsing Olsen recorded the pearl fishers’ concerts, the seamen’s shanties, the bedouin war songs, the wedding music, the festival music etc. on his tape recorder. By doing this he saved a unique collection of song and music, which is now stored in the Dansk Folkemindesamling in Copenhagen. It comprises around 150 tapes and more than 700 pieces of music. The instruments are to be found at the Musikhistorisk Museum and Moesgård Museum (fig. 5).During the 1960s and 1970s Rovsing Olsen published a number of smaller studies on music from the Arabian Gulf, which established his name as the greatest connoisseur of music from this area – a reputation, which the twenty years that have passed since his death have not shaken. Rovsing Olsen also published an LP record with pearl fisher music, and with the music ethnologist Jean Jenkins from the Horniman Museum in London he published six LP records, Music in the World of Islam with seven numbers from the Arabian Gulf, and the book Music and Musical Instruments in the World of Islam (London 1976).Shortly before his death, Rovsing Olsen finished a comprehensive manuscript in English, Music in Bahrain, where he summed up nearly twenty-five years of studies into folk music along the Arabian Gulf, with the main emphasis on Bahrain. The manuscript has eleven chapters, and after a short introduction Rovsing Olsen deals with musical instruments, lute music, war and honour songs of the bedouins, festivity dance, working songs and concerts of the pearl fishers, music influenced front Africa, double clarinet and bag pipe music, religious songs and women’s songs. Of these, eighty-four selected pieces of music are reproduced with notes and commented in the text. A large selection of this music will be published on three CDs to go with the book.This work has been anticipated with great expectation by music ethnologists and connoisseurs of Arabic folk music, and in agreement with Rovsing Olsen’s widow, Louise Lerche-Lerchenborg and Dansk Folkemindesamling, Moesgård Museum is presently working on publishing the work.The publication is managed by the Jutland Archaeological Society and Aarhus University Press will manage the distribution. The Carlsberg Foundation and Bahrain’s Cabinet and Information Ministry will cover the editing and printing expenses.The publication of the book and the CDs on the music of Bahrain will be celebrated at a festivity on Bahrain, at the next annual cultural festival, the theme of which will be ”mutual inspiration across cultural borders” with a focus on Rovsing Olsen. In this context, Den Danske Trio Anette Slaato will perform A Dream in Violet, a music piece influenced by Arabic music. On the same occasion singers and musicians will present the traditional pearl fishers’ music from Bahrain. In connection with the concert on Bahrain, a major tour has been planned in cooperation with The Danish Institute in Damascus, where the Danish musicians will also perform in Damascus and Beirut and give ”masterclasses” in chamber music on the local music academies. The concert tour is being organised by Louise Lerche-Lerchenborg, who initiated one of the most important Danish musical events, the Lerchenborg Musical Days,in 1963 and organised them for thirty years.ConclusionPride of concerted effort is not a special Danish national sport. However,the achievements in the Arabian Gulf made by the Danish expeditions from the Århus museum are recognised everywhere. It is only fair to use this jubilee volume for drawing attention to the fact that the journal Kuml and the publications of the Jutland Archaeological Society were the instruments through which the epoch-making investigations in the Gulf were nude public nationally and internationally.Finally, the cooperationon interesting tasks between Moesgård Museum and the countries along the Arabian Gulf will continue. In the future, Kuml will again be reporting on new excavations in the palm shadows and eventually, larger investigation s will no doubt find their way to the society’s comprehensive volumes.Flemming HøjlundMoesgård MuseumTranslated by Annette Lerche Trolle

Abstract Graphene oxide liquid crystal (GOLC) was prepared using the improved Hummer’s method. A particular purification methodology is used to reduce the disadvantages of the common purification methods. The thin films of GOLC were prepared using a wasteless low-cost drop-casting method. The optical parameters are determined for GOLC films of different thickness ranging from 400 to 2000 nm. The spectral distribution of transmittance and reflectance of GOLC films was investigated in the wavelength range from 300 to 2000 nm. The refractive index of GOLC films was analyzed according to the single oscillator model. The oscillator and dispersion energies are estimated using the Wemple-DiDomenico method. The allowed transitions in GOLC films are found to be indirect, with the energy gap decreasing gradually with increasing film thickness in the investigated range. The optical and electrical conductivities as functions of photon energy are explored. Also, the third-order susceptibility and non-linear refractive index are calculated.

ABSTRACTHydrogen bonding in laser crystallized boron and phosphorous doped polycrystalline silicon is investigated using Raman spectroscopy and hydrogen effusion measurements. During laser crystallization the intensity of the local vibration modes near 2000 and 2100 cm−1 decreases. The intensity of vibration mode at 2000 cm−1 decreases faster than the one at 2100 cm−1. From H effusion measurements, the hydrogen density-of-states (H DOS) distribution is derived. For undoped amorphous silicon the H DOS exhibits two prominent peaks at hydrogen binding energies of E– μH = –1.1 and –1.5 eV. In B doped a-Si:H the peak at –1.1 eV is less pronounced while in P doped a-Si:H the H binding energy increases by about 0.1 eV. In all samples laser crystallization causes an increase of the H binding energy by about 0.2 – 0.3 eV. However, the peaks in the H DOS observed in B-doped samples are preserved during laser crystallization.

AbstractThe article aims at studying the geographical variability of theatrical consumption and popularity of contemporary films imported in Italy since the beginning of the XXI century. It relies on the data about regional admissions and theatrical distribution of more than 4100 titles, namely all the films with more than 15,000 admissions that had been projected in Italy from January 2000 to the pandemic outbreak in mid-February 2020, which forced the closure of all cinemas nationwide. While the regional patterns of distribution of both domestic and foreign films are always rather homogeneous and do not undergo major regional variations, Italian and non-Italian films are consumed in very different ways, geographically. When it comes to foreign cinema, a Regional Popularity Index shows how different regions and primarily wider trans-regional areas have different preferences linked to particular themes and genres. Different films are more or less popular in different areas, even regardless of any disparities in their distribution, precisely because they meet (or fail to meet) the specific tastes of macro-regional audiences. Specifically, the data consistently show a divide in taste between the northern-central audiences and their southern counterparts, which replicates the great distance that still divides the North from the South of Italy, from an economic, social and cultural point of view.

ABSTRACTThin films of B4C and SiC deposited by magnetron sputtering as components of multilayers have the potential to provide significant property improvements over current wear resistant coating technology. B4C and SiC have previously been found to be amorphous and possibly nanocrystalline under the deposition conditions used. This study reports results of synchrotron x-ray scattering experiments providing information on the degree of crystallinity, strain, average density, and coordination number in 2000 Å films of these compounds on Si substrates. Radial distribution functions from B4C and SiC thin films were obtained and used to model the structure. Strain results are compared with Double Crystal x-ray Diffraction Topography (DCDT) results as a means for establishing a standard strain state.

AbstractThe study demonstrates high‐quality pulsed‐laser‐deposited (PLD) barium titanate (BTO) thin‐films on a magnesium oxide substrate. The frequency response of the relative permittivity (dielectric constant) and the linear electro‐optical coefficient (Pockels coefficient) are measured. At 0.2 GHz, the Pockels coefficient is fitted to be r42 ≈ 1030 pm V−1. It decreases to ≈390 pm V−1 at 10 GHz after which it remains constant up to 70 GHz. The unbiased BTO permittivity is measured to be εa ≈ 7600 at 0.2 GHz, dropping to ≈1100 at 67 GHz, while the biased BTO had a permittivity εa ≈ 2000 at 0.2 GHz, dropping to ≈500 at 67 GHz. These results fill an important experimental characterization gap for high‐speed BTO applications and show the high quality of PLD‐grown BTO films. Lastly, the material's crystalline quality is characterized and the domain distribution is imaged. The findings enable the design and fabrication of a new generation of BTO‐based components for sensing and communications.

AbstractMultidimensional integration and multifunctional component assembly have been greatly explored in recent years to extend Moore’s Law of modern microelectronics. However, this inevitably exacerbates the inhomogeneity of temperature distribution in microsystems, making precise temperature control for electronic components extremely challenging. Herein, we report an on-chip micro temperature controller including a pair of thermoelectric legs with a total area of 50 × 50 μm2, which are fabricated from dense and flat freestanding Bi2Te3-based thermoelectric nano films deposited on a newly developed nano graphene oxide membrane substrate. Its tunable equivalent thermal resistance is controlled by electrical currents to achieve energy-efficient temperature control for low-power electronics. A large cooling temperature difference of 44.5 K at 380 K is achieved with a power consumption of only 445 μW, resulting in an ultrahigh temperature control capability over 100 K mW−1. Moreover, an ultra-fast cooling rate exceeding 2000 K s−1 and excellent reliability of up to 1 million cycles are observed. Our proposed on-chip temperature controller is expected to enable further miniaturization and multifunctional integration on a single chip for microelectronics.

AbstractThe coffee‐ring effect, caused by uneven deposition of colloidal particles in perovskite precursor solutions, leads to poor uniformity in perovskite films prepared through large‐area printing. In this work, the surface of SnO2 is roughened to construct a Wenzel model, successfully achieving a super‐hydrophilic interface. This modification significantly accelerates the spreading of the perovskite precursor solution, reducing the response delay time of perovskite colloidal particles during the printing process. Additionally, the micro‐spherical depression structure on the SnO2 surface effectively inhibits the migration of colloidal particles toward the edges of liquid film, trapping perovskite colloidal particles at the buried interfaces and improving film uniformity. Due to the synergistic effect of super‐hydrophilicity and micro‐rough structure on the surface of SnO2, leading to a substantial improvement in the quality of perovskite crystals. Therefore, the efficiency of printing prepared flexible devices (0.101 cm2) reached 25.42% (certified 25.12%). Moreover, the efficiency of rigid and flexible large‐scale perovskite solar modules (PSMs) based on meniscus‐coating manufacture reached 21.34% and 16.99% (100 cm2), respectively, and demonstrated superior environmental stability by maintaining an initial efficiency of 91% after being stored in atmospheric conditions for 2000 h, offering practical guidance for fabricating high‐performance and stable large‐scale perovskite solar cells (PSCs).

AbstractIn the optimization of high-growth rate hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) for photovoltaics, the observation of the infrared (IR) absorption peaks around 2000 cm-1 - which originate from silicon hydrogen (Si-HX) bonds in the film bulk - can provide useful information about the properties of the film. If the films are deposited on IR transparent substrates, Fourier Transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is the most commonly used technique to measure the absorption in this regime. The rich spectrum of Si-HX peaks that can be observed in this wavenumber region describes the distribution of the bonded hydrogen amongst the various possible SiHX configurations, and as well, the presence of a pair of narrow, twin peaks at 2085 and 2100 cm-1 is indicative of material that is porous and prone to oxidation upon exposure to air. Many of these high wavenumber peaks are also observable using Raman scattering spectroscopy, allowing one to observe films on substrates that are not IR transparent. As well, the different absorption/scattering cross sections of the two techniques provide a useful tool to understand the origins of the various peaks, and in particular, those of the twin narrow peaks. In this work, we examine the dynamics upon exposure to atmosphere of these twin peaks in μc-Si:H grown by Matrix Distributed Electron Cyclotron Resonance (MD-ECR) PECVD. This deposition technique is an extremely promising one for growing μc-Si:H thin films at high deposition rates, and has demonstrated μc-Si:H film deposition at up to 28Å/s. By using both FTIR and Raman spectroscopy to characterize these films, we examine the differences in the dynamics of each of the twin peaks according to the technique used. In addition, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) measurements on the films show the physical distribution of oxygen in the films after five months of air exposure, and XRD measurements correlate the presence of these twin peaks with a [111] preferential surface orientation. Using these observations, we assign these absorption and scattering features to specific configurations of Si-HX within the film, and explain both the dynamics of the peaks over time and the similarity of the peaks for a wide range of samples.

ABSTRACTThe extremely high surface areas required for supercapacitors has limited the use of metal based electrodes, despite the other advantages such electrodes might have. Self-assembling surfactants and block co-polymers can be used as templates to produce nanostructured thin films that readily give 60-140 fold increases in surface area on both planar and three-dimensional substrates. However, even when relatively high surface area porous metal substrates such as nickel foam are used as a starting point, the resultant material still has surface area density well short of that available in other types of materials. Micro-emulsions offer a method of generating microstructure that bridges the gap between the 100 micron scale structures of foamed metals and the 10-50 nm scale structure of self-assembling block co-polymers. Electrodeposition of nickel and cobalt from micro-emulsions of Tween surfactants gives rise to structure on the 0.1-10 micron length scale. The scale of the microstructure is strongly influenced by the metal ion concentration and the potential at which the electrodeposition. The nature of the metal ion also strongly effects the ease with which the microstructure can be generated and the distribution of the microstructured film on foamed nickel electrodes. For microstructured nickel films ten fold surface area increases can be achieved. The microstructured films are expected to be compatible with a number of the nanostructuring methods to yield cumulative surface area increases of 1000-2000 fold.

This work aims to study the effect of semi-ellipsoid texture on the bearing load capacity and maximum oil film temperature of tilting pad journal bearings. It has been shown that surface texture can improve the steady-state performance of bearings, but there are few studies on tilting pad journal bearings. A thermal elastohydrodynamic model of tilting pad journal bearings have been developed to support the analysis and solved by the finite difference method. The calculation results of the model are in good agreement with the simulation results of MADYN 2000 software, which proves the validity of the model. The effects of texture distribution, depth, radius, and density on the characteristics of tilting pad journal bearings were studied and compared with those of untextured tilting pad journal bearings. The results show that texture can significantly enhance or weaken the steady-state characteristics of tilting pad journal bearings, which is related to the texture parameters. This work provides a reference for the design of tilting pad journal bearings.

Abstract Highly ordered, macroporous inverse opal structures can be made as TiO2/GeO2 nanocomposites with various GeO2 content and provide Coulombic and voltage stable response where the Ge content and its distribution influence the overall capacity at both slow and fast rates. These interconnected binder-free anodes were characterized using X-ray diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, selected-area electron diffraction, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and electron energy loss spectroscopy. The electrochemical response in half cells over 2000 cycles and various rates showed how the mixture affected key metrics for the material in battery cells. The data shows that a composite of intercalation and alloying compounds can provide good capacity (between theatrical maxima for either material alone) and excellent coulombic efficiency (>99%), even with low quantities of the higher capacity alloying compound. Compositional gradients or spatial heterogeneities in the distribution on one material in the composite are shown to affect capacity during cycling life, where a coulombically efficient increasing capacity is found as the higher capacity material becomes electrochemically active within the composite matrix as the material is modified during cycling.

AbstractWhile foldable solar cells can advance the applications from emerging electronics like self‐powered wearable optoelectronic devices, the poor mechanical durability of perovskite films due to the severe intrinsic strain, and the brittle nature of the flexible ITO electrode hinder foldable perovskite solar cells (F‐PSCs) realization. Here, the strategy of region‐dependent microscopic and macroscopic strain suppression is demonstrated to achieve efficient F‐PSCs on silver nanowires (AgNWs) electrodes. Fundamentally, by introducing the region‐dependent modification approach of functionalized polymer incorporation, the significant release of microscopic strain in perovskite film is demonstrated by effectively suppressing defects at places with crystallization orientation variation of perovskite surface/grain boundaries. Equally important, the gradient macroscopic strain is simultaneously eliminated by inhibiting the FA+ (formamidinum) gradient distribution in perovskite film's depth direction. The two‐strain relaxations greatly enhance the mechanical durability of perovskite film, while also improving phase stability and suppressing ion migration. Finally, efficient F‐PSCs (23% PCE, the highest value among reported F‐PSCs) is realized with remarkable foldability, with efficiency maintaining 94% of its initial value even after 2000 times multidirectional folding at 0.75 mm curvature radius, which far exceeds the mechanical durability of typical ITO‐based flexible PSCs. This work aids in comprehending strain modulation role for F‐PSCs realization.

Abstract Atmospheric pressure plasma jets (APPJs) produce reactive species and electric fields for biomedical applications. Gas shields control plasma plume-surrounding gas interactions, regulating reactive species generation and electric field strength. However, the surface electric field distribution is still unclear and needs urgent attention. Here, the electric field distribution on the surface exposed to a helium APPJ with shielding gas is investigated using the Pockels technique. This study considers the influence of the type of shielding gas (ambient air, dry air, nitrogen, oxygen, nitrogen-oxygen mixture) and the flow rate (2000 - 6000 sccm). The results show that the surface electric field develops in three phases: establishment, maintenance, and dissipation. Both flow rate and oxygen content of the shielding gas significantly influence surface discharge behavior and the maximum electric field value. The analysis suggests that the establishment phase of the electric field results from charge transfer by ionization waves to the dielectric, while the maintenance of the electric field depends on pulse duration. During the dissipation phase, the positive surface charge attracts negatively charged species to the surface (electrons and negative ions), which causes charge neutralization at the surface. The oxygen content in the shielding gas impacts the electric field establishment phase, with a low oxygen content leading to lower photo-ionization rates and, consequently, surface discharges with branching. Shielding gas flow rates affect the amount of shielding gas mixed into the helium channel. Mixing less oxygen into the APPJ increases the electric field strength, as the ionization potential is lower than nitrogen. Excessive oxygen mixing traps more free electrons due to electronegativity, causing fewer ionized collisions and more negative ions in APPJ, ultimately lowering the electric field strength. This study shows that shielding gas type and flow rates can adjust surface charging, aiding in optimizing biomedical APPJ.

Abstract This study addressed the critical need for non-invasive monitoring of diabetes by proposing an acetone gas sensor based on hierarchical In2O3 with atomic layer deposition (ALD)-deposited WO3 nanoparticles. The sensor fabrication involved a carefully designed process, leveraging ALD to control WO3 deposition, ensuring uniform distribution, and mitigating agglomeration. The resulting composite exhibited enhanced sensitivity, making it promising for detecting acetone, a key biomarker for diabetes. Material synthesis, including hydrothermal formation of In2O3 hierarchy particles and ALD of WO3, was meticulously conducted. Comprehensive characterizations, involving SEM, TEM, EDX, XRD, XPS, and BET, validated the successful synthesis and deposition. The sensor's response to varying acetone concentrations (50-2000 ppb) was systematically investigated, revealing a positive correlation. The In2O3/WO3-2 sensor exhibited the highest sensitivity, attributed to the catalytic properties of WO3. The proposed sensor presented a cost-effective, sensitive, and selective solution, paving the way for non-invasive diabetes monitoring.&#xD;

Abstract Opportunities for the fabrication of plant fiber hybrids using thermoplastics and thermosets may be found in a variety of industries, including automobiles and agriculture. This can lessen reliance on crude oil, which contributes to a number of sustainability problems. In the current study, calotropis gigantea fiber (CGF) and nanosilicon dioxide (SiO2)-derived hybridized materials' mechanical, dynamic mechanical, and water absorption properties were examined. Utilizing varying weight proportions of nanoSiO2 (0, 1.5, 3, and 4.5 wt%) and 30 wt% of CGF, we manufactured the composite using the hand lay-up method. The moisture absorption of the manufactured composites was measured during periods of 500, 1000, and 2000 hours. For composite materials containing 1.5 wt% SiO2, the highest interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) failure point was 12.52 MPa for 500 hours, which is 12.32% lower than the breaking strength for dried products (14.28 MPa). In comparison to the dry specimens, the bending strength of hybrids with 1.5% SiO2 that were immersed in water for 500, 1000, and 2000 hours decreased by 2.56%, 5.21%, and 9.65%, respectively. The storage modulus of the damp hybrids with 3% and 4.5 wt% SiO2 was higher than that of the dry samples in terms of their dynamic mechanical properties. While the inclusion of nano-SiO2 significantly reduced water absorption and moisture diffusion, especially for hybrid materials with 4.5 weight percent SiO2, the water-absorption behaviour of hybrid natural fiber materials followed the Fickian law. With prolonged exposure time, the mechanical properties of the nanocomposite, both with and without nano-SiO2, such as ILSS and bending strength, declined. Due to the effective distribution of filler in the matrices, the samples with 4.5 weight percent SiO2 exhibited the smallest drop in strengths for both the flexural and interlaminar examinations, although all of them remained stronger than the CGF blends. The outcomes of the study point to potential applications in areas such as automobile manufacture, agriculture, construction, and general manufacturing.

Abstract The production of H- ions in negative ion sources relevant for particle accelerator facilities and neutral beam injection systems is based predominantly on the surface conversion of H atoms at a low work function surface covered with caesium (the plasma grid). Therefore, the H atom density n H and energy distribution function (EDF) close to the plasma grid determine the amount of surface produced H- ions. As a direct method for the density and EDF determination, two-photon absorption laser induced fluorescence (TALIF) on H atoms was implemented at the ion source of the teststand BATMAN Upgrade being the first time that this was accomplished at an H- ion source. Several challenges had to be overcome concerning the application of the diagnostic at the complex facility and the evaluation of the fluorescence signals against a bright Hα background. The observed line profiles suggest a Maxwellian EDF with an H atom temperature of (2000 ± 500) K. The presence of highly energetic H atoms (measured by optical emission spectroscopy, OES) could not be resolved by the TALIF system due to the insufficient signal-to-noise ratio. Atomic densities were measured for H2 and D2 plasmas for varying ion source parameters at BATMAN Upgrade resulting in values between 3×1018 m-3 and 1.1×1019 m-3 for hydrogen. For the operation with deuterium, 30% higher atomic densities are observed for similar ion source parameters which agree well with the previous results obtained with OES.&#xD;

In many applications, such as four-point contact slewing bearings or main shaft angular contact ball bearings, the rings and housings are so thin that the assumption of rigid rings does not hold anymore. In this paper, several methods are proposed to account for the flexibility of rings in a quasi-static ball bearing numerical model. The modeling approach consists of coupling a semianalytical approach and a finite element (FE) model to describe the deformation of the rings and housings. The manner in which this weak coupling is made differs depending on how the structural deformation of the ring and housing assemblies is injected into the set of nonlinear geometrical and equilibrium equations in order to solve them. These methods enable us to account for ring ovalization, ring twist, and raceway opening (including change of conformity) since a tulip deformation mode of the ring groove is observed for high contact angles. Either the torus fitting technique or mean displacement computation are used to determine these geometrical parameters. A comparison between the different approaches allows us to study, in particular, the impact of raceway conformity change. The loads used in this investigation are chosen in order that the maximum contact pressure (the Hertz pressure) at the ball-raceway interface remains below 2000 MPa, without any contact ellipse truncation. For the ball bearing example considered here, relative differences of up to 30% on the axial displacement, 10% on the maximum contact pressure, and 10% on the contact angle are observed by comparing rigid and deformable rings for a typical loading representative of the one encountered in operation. Despite the local change of conformity, which becomes significant at high contact angles and for thin ball bearing flanges, it is shown that this hardly affects the internal load distribution. The paper ends with a discussion on how the ring and housing flexibility may affect the loading envelope when the truncation of the contact ellipse is an issue.

Abstract Lymphatic filariasis (LF), caused by Wuchereria bancrofti infection, has probably occurred in Egypt since ancient times. In more recent years, LF was recognized as a major public health problem in the Nile delta since the early 1930s and Culex pipiens was identified as the major mosquito vector of transmission. Since then the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) took measures for control of the disease. During 1955-1965, a nationwide survey determined the size and extent of LF as a public health problem. The survey included all 20 governorates of the country, involved rural and urban areas. Over 0.5 million blood films were examined. The survey results indicated that LF was focally endemic in rural localities, concentrated in the eastern part of the Nile Delta mainly in Qalyubia, Sharqia, Dakahlia and Damietta governorates, and in Giza and Asyout in Upper Egypt. The LF prevalence was &lt;1% in Behira, Cairo, Gharbia, Ismailia, Kafr El Sheikh, Menoufia, Port Said and Suez governorate. Six governorates In Upper Egypt were free of LF. In 1976, the National Filariasis Control Program was launched in Qalyubia governorate, and then gradually extended to cover 10 endemic governorates including: Asyout, Behira, Dakahlia, Damietta, Gharbia, Giza, Kafr El Sheikh, Menoufia, Qalyubia and Sharqia governorate. In 2000, Egypt was among the first countries to join the WHO global efforts and initiated a national LF elimination programme (NLFEP). The NLFEP programme adopted the WHO two objectives (1) elimination of LF as a public health problem based on annual mass drug distribution (MDA) of two drug regiments (DEC & albendazole) to the entire eligible population living in areas where the disease was endemic (≥1%); (2) alleviate the suffering caused by LF through increased morbidity management and disability prevention (MMDP) activities. Intervention for interruption of transmission included several programme components. These included mapping of eligible MDA implementation units (IUs; villages); training of drug distributers on drug distribution activities; social mobilization using a variety of formal and informal channels to reach people with clear messages; directly observed drug distribution; treatment of adverse reactions; and monitoring and evaluation of MDA rounds. In 2005, after five effective MDA rounds (MDA coverage rate ≥80%), MDA was stopped in 92.5% of IUs, and continued in other IUs. In 2013, the last MDA round was implemented. In the 2014-2015 scholastic year, 10 years after stopping MDA in 166 villages, and more than six months after the last MDA implemented in 29 IUs during 2013, transmission assessment survey (TAS) was carried out according to WHO guidelines. In 2017, the last TAS was implemented. All TAS data clearly indicated that LF has likely been eliminated from Egypt. MMDP: five health centers, part of the primary health care system, are actively working with lymphoedema and elephantiasis affected people by providing skin care, necessary health care aids and information booklets. Thus, after over a decade of continued efforts, Egypt has successfully eliminated LF as a public health problem. In December 2017 the Director General of WHO congratulated Egypt for this historical achievement.