Pressure‐Tunable Ambipolar Conduction and Hysteresis in Thin Palladium Diselenide Field Effect Transistors

Few‐layer palladium diselenide (PdSe₂) field effect transistors are studied under external stimuli such as electrical and optical fields, electron irradiation, and gas pressure. The ambipolar conduction and hysteresis are observed in the transfer curves of the as‐exfoliated and unprotected PdSe₂ material. The ambipolar conduction and its hysteretic behavior in the air and pure nitrogen environments are tuned. The prevailing p‐type transport observed at atmospheric pressure is reversibly turned into a dominant n‐type conduction by reducing the pressure, which can simultaneously suppress the hysteresis. The pressure control can be exploited to symmetrize and stabilize the transfer characteristics of the device as required in high‐performance logic circuits. The transistors are affected by trap states with characteristic times in the order of minutes. The channel conductance, dramatically reduced by the electron irradiation during scanning electron microscope imaging, is restored after an annealing of several minutes at room temperature. The work paves the way toward the exploitation of PdSe₂ in electronic devices by providing an experiment‐based and deep understanding of charge transport in PdSe₂ transistors subjected to electrical stress and other external agents.     

Predictive Validity of an Empirical Approach for Selecting Promising Message Topics: A Randomized‐Controlled Study

Several message topic selection approaches propose that messages based on beliefs pretested and found to be more strongly associated with intentions will be more effective in changing population intentions and behaviors when used in a campaign. This study aimed to validate the underlying causal assumption of these approaches which rely on cross‐sectional belief–intention associations. We experimentally tested whether messages addressing promising themes as identified by the above criterion were more persuasive than messages addressing less promising themes. Contrary to expectations, all messages increased intentions. Interestingly, mediation analyses showed that while messages deemed promising affected intentions through changes in targeted promising beliefs, messages deemed less promising also achieved persuasion by influencing nontargeted promising beliefs. Implications for message topic selection are discussed.     

Conductive Anodic Filament Formation Part II: Electrochemical Reactions Leading to CAF

Conductive anodic filament (CAF) formation has been studied for a number of years, but the mechanism of its formation has not previously been defined. In 2002, Ready identified CAF as atacamite, Cu₂(OH)₃Cl. Electrochemical studies have shown that both CuCl and CuCl ₂ ^? participate in the formation of Cu₂(OH)₃Cl, with the predominating species being CuCl. This paper proposes a mechanism for CAF formation based on x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The data show that CuCl is the precursor to the formation of Cu₂(OH)₃Cl in the presence of oxygen and water. Earlier, Meeker and Lu Valle had proposed that CAF failure is best represented by two competing reactions: the formation of a copper chloride corrosion compound (now identified as Cu₂(OH)₃Cl) and the formation of innocuous trapped chlorine compounds. Since no evidence of any trapped chloride compounds has been found, we propose that the formation of CAF is best represented by a single nonreversible reaction.     

Understanding Sexual Objectification: A Comprehensive Approach Toward Media Exposure and Girls' Internalization of Beauty Ideals,Self‐Objectification,and Body Surveillance

The relationship between exposure to sexually objectifying music television, primetime television programs, fashion magazines, and social networking sites and the internalization of beauty ideals, self‐objectification, and body surveillance was examined among adolescent girls (N = 558). A structural equation model showed direct relationships between sexually objectifying media and the internalization of beauty ideals, and indirect relationships between sexually objectifying media and self‐objectification, and body surveillance through the internalization of beauty ideals. The direct relationships between sexually objectifying media and the internalization of beauty ideals, self‐objectification, and body surveillance differed across the types of sexually objectifying media. The discussion focuses on the implications of these findings to explain self‐objectification among girls.     

Multimodal Bioactivation of Hydrophilic Electrospun Nanofibers Enables Simultaneous Tuning of Cell Adhesivity and Immunomodulatory Effects

Biomaterials research usually focuses on functional and structural mimicry of the extracellular matrix or tissue hierarchy and morphology. Most recently, material‐induced modulatory effects on the immune system to arouse a healing response is another upcoming strategy. Approaches, however, that integrate both aspects to induce healing and facilitate specific cell adhesion are so far little explored. This study exploits manifold but chemical crosslinker free functionalization of hydrophilic and nonadhesive electrospun fiber surfaces with peptides for controlled cell adhesion, and with neutra­lizing antibodies targeting the master cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF) to dampen proinflammatory reactions by the fiber adherent cells. It is demonstrated that cell attachment and immunomodulatory properties of a textile can be tailored at the same time to generate meshes that combine immunosuppressive activity with specific cell adhesion properties.     

Glycocalyx‐Like Hydrogel Coatings for Small Diameter Vascular Grafts

Novel biological vascular conduits, such as decellularized tissue engineered vascular grafts (TEVGs) are hindered by high thrombogenicity. To mimic the antithrombogenic surface of native vessels with a continuous glycosaminoglycan layer that is present on endothelial cells (ECs), a hyaluronic acid (HA) modified surface is established, to effectively shield blood platelets from collagen‐triggered activation. Using the amine groups present on 4 mm diameter decellularized TEVGs, a continuous HA hydrogel coating is built via a bifunctional thiol‐reactive cross‐linker, thereby avoiding nonspecific collagen matrix cross‐linking. The HA hydrogel layer recreates a luminal wall, “hiding” exposed collagen from the bloodstream. In vitro blood tests show that adhered platelets, fibrinogen absorption, and fibrin formation on HA‐coated decellularized TEVGs are significantly lower than on uncoated decellularized TEVGs. The HA surface also inhibits macrophage adhesion in vitro. HA‐coated decellularized syngeneic rat aortae (≈1.5 mm diameter), and TEVGs in rat and canine models, respectively, are protected from aggressive thrombus formation, and preserve normal blood flow. Re‐endothelialization is also observed. HA‐coated TEVGs may be an off‐the‐shelf small‐diameter vascular graft with dual benefits: antithrombogenic protection and promotion of endothelium.     

Analytical study of apple liqueurs

In the present work the composition of apple liqueurs has been analysed, since the consumption of these beverages in Spain has increased during the last years. Twenty-five samples, belonging to the most representative five brands of the Spanish market have been analysed. The following determinations were carried out: alcoholic grade, total acidity, methanol, furfurol, dry extract, reducing sugars, sucrose, ash contact, macroelements (Na, K, Ca, Mg) and microelements (Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn). These parameters enable the quality evaluation of these beverages and contribute to their characterization with respect to the fruit used in their elaboration. To complete the experimental study, a BMDP 7M discriminant statistical analysis has been applied to the results obtained. The variables that best discriminate the groups have been determined and all the samples have been classified and differentiated.

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Analytisches Studium der Apfelsaftliköre

Zusammenfassung Es wurde die Zusammensetzung von Apfelsaftlikören analysiert, weil diese Getränke öfter in Spanien getrunken werden. Fünfundzwanzig Proben von fünf bestimmten, spanischen Markengetränken wurden analysiert. Es wurden folgende Bestimmungen ausgeführt: Alkoholkonzentration, Gehalt an Säure, Methanol, Extrakt, Zucker, Sucrose, Asche, Macroelemente (Na, K, Ca, Mg) und Mikroelemente (Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn). Diese Parameter erlauben die Qualität dieser Getränke zu schätzen und ihre Charakterisierung auf Grund des Fruchtgehaltes. Weiterhin wurde eine BMDP 7M diskriminant-statistische Analyse der Resultate angewandt. Die diskriminant-Variablen der Gruppe wurden bestimmt und alle Proben konnten klassifiziert und unterschieden werden.

     

Misreading liberalisation and privatisation: The case of the US energy utilities in Europe

In response to energy market liberalisation and privatisation initiatives promoted by the EU and other European states in the 1990s, a large number of US energy utilities expanded their activities in Europe, mainly through acquisitions. The size of their investment was, a decade later, matched by the ensuing scale of their retreat, wealth destruction and often forced exit. Combining interviews, industry studies, published financial data and company reports, this article examines critically their strategy and, in light of widespread failures, seeks to answer the question of what went wrong. It is argued that mistakes might have been avoided through greater appreciation of how market liberalisation evolves given changing government priorities and general sovereign risk.     

The use of visual search for knowledge gathering in image decision support

This paper presents a new method of knowledge gathering for decision support in image understanding based on information extracted from the dynamics of saccadic eye movements. The framework involves the construction of a generic image feature extraction library, from which the feature extractors that are most relevant to the visual assessment by domain experts are determined automatically through factor analysis. The dynamics of the visual search are analyzed by using the Markov model for providing training information to novices on how and where to look for image features. The validity of the framework has been evaluated in a clinical scenario whereby the pulmonary vascular distribution on Computed Tomography images was assessed by experienced radiologists as a potential indicator of heart failure. The performance of the system has been demonstrated by training four novices to follow the visual assessment behavior of two experienced observers. In all cases, the accuracy of the students improved from near random decision making (33%) to accuracies ranging from 50% to 68%.     

Proactive defragmentation in elastic optical networks under dynamic load conditions

The main weakness of elastic optical networks (EON), under dynamic traffic conditions, stems from spectrum fragmentation. A lot of research efforts have been dedicated during recent years to spectrum defragmentation. In this work, a thorough study about proactive defragmentation is carried out. Effects of the different defragmentation parameters on the EON performance are analyzed, and appropriate values of the defragmentation period, which guarantee suitable network performance while keeping the network control complexity at reasonable values, are obtained by means of extensive simulations. Benefit obtained by applying different defragmentation strategies, in terms of increase in the supported load at a given bandwidth blocking probability, is also reported. Different traffic conditions and network topologies are simulated to assess the validity of the obtained results.