(Ba,Ca)TiO3 PTCR Ceramics with LaNiO3 Thin-Film Electrodes: Preparation and Characterization of the Interface

Conductive LaNiO₃ thin film electrodes were deposited by chemical solution deposition (CSD) from nitrate solutions onto polycrystalline Al₂O₃ and (Ba,Ca)TiO₃ PTCR ceramic substrates. The electrical properties of the LaNiO₃ thin film on Al₂O₃ and of the interface consisting of LaNiO₃ and the semiconductive oxide ceramic were investigated. The deposited LaNiO₃ films were about 250 nm thick and consisted of nanosized particles. The resistivity of the LaNiO₃ film was about 3 × 10^-3cm at 20°C. The PTCR ceramic consisted of m sized particles and exhibited an electronic resistivity of about 10 cm at 20°C and a steep increase of the resistivity of a few orders of magnitude above the Curie point at about 120°C. The electrical properties of the LaNiO₃/PTCR interface were dominated by the properties of a barrier layer between the PTCR ceramic and the LaNiO₃ electrode. The potential dependence of the impedance indicated that the barrier layer consisted of a depletion layer within the PTCR ceramic, when the flat band potential of LaNiO₃ on the PTCR ceramic at about –250 mV was exceeded. Additionally the formation of an insulating layer at the LaNiO₃ electrode has to be taken into account.     

Energietransport über weite Strecken

If the regenerative energy that can be produced in a country is not sufficient for the successful implementation of the energy transition, one possible solution could be the purchase of regeneratively produced electricity from countries particularly favored by meteorology. This article examines five different technologies for energy transport. The electricity is generated once in a photovoltaic system and once in a wind turbine park. The investments in the transmission technologies sometimes exceed the investments in the power generation technologies many times over. According to the available results, without considering storage, the wind turbine system, although it is specifically more expensive than the photovoltaic system, always leads to lower electricity generation costs after the energy transport. The reason is the higher number of full load hours of the wind turbine.     

Financial and Ecological Evaluation of Hydrogen Production Processes on Large Scale

Hydrogen is widely seen as energy carrier of the future. Different technologies are under development to produce hydrogen at competitive cost but with significantly reduced carbon footprint. Two conventional technologies, namely, methane steam reforming and coal gasification, are compared based on product cost and carbon footprint with four new technologies, i.e., metal‐oxide cycle, water electrolysis, biomass gasification, and methane pyrolysis. To evaluate the carbon footprint for methane pyrolysis, system extension and differential methods are applied. For the boundary conditions selected here, methane pyrolysis yields very good values for product cost and carbon footprint. Therefore, a cross industry technology development of methane pyrolysis was initiated.     

Infrared study of acetone and nitrogen oxides on Cu-ZSM-5

The oxidation of bulky thioethers has been carried out on Ti-Beta and Ti-MCM-41 catalysts, using H₂O₂ andt-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) as oxidants. The intrinsic activity of Ti-Beta was higher than that of Ti-MCM-41 for the oxidation of methyl phenyl sulfide which can penetrate in the pores of Beta, while in the case of the larger isopentyl phenyl sulfide, which diffuses more slowly in Ti-Beta zeolite, Ti-MCM-41 gives a larger activity. Ti-Beta is able to perform better for the more demanding oxidation of sulfoxides to sulfones giving, therefore, higher selectivities to sulfones than Ti-MCM-41. Similar results were obtained when using either H₂O₂ or TBHP as oxidants. However, the sterical effects were enhanced when TBHP was used as oxidant.     

From concepts to consistent object specifications: Translation of a domain-oriented feature framework into practice

A steady increase in consumer demands,and severe constraints from both a somewhat damaged environment and newly installed government policies,require today‘s product design and development to be faster and more efficient than ever before,yet utilizing even fewer resources.New holistic approaches,such at total product life cycle modeling which embraces all aspercts of a product‘s life cycle,are current attempts to solve these problems,Within the field of product design and modeling,feature technology has proved to be one very promising solution component.Owing to the tremendous increase in information technology,to transfer from low level data processing towards knowledge modeling and information processing is about to bring a change in almost every computerized application.From this viewpoint,current problems of both feature frameworks and feature systems are analyzed in respect to static and dynamic consistency breakdowns.The analysis ranges from early stager of designing(feature)concepts to final system implementation and application.For the first tie,an integrated view is given on approaches,solutions and practical experience,with feature concepts and structures,providing both a feature framework and its implementation with sufficient system architecture and computational power to master a fair number of known consistency breakdowns,while providing for robust contexts for feature semantics and integrated models.Within today;s heavy use of information technology these are pre-requisites if the full potential of feature technology is to be successfully translated into practice.     

Distinguishing video quality through differential matrices

Multicast multi-layered communications must implement efficient control algorithms to address undesirable network behaviors. This paper proposes two multi-metric algorithms for computing the rates of the video layers and improve the global video quality of a multicast session. In fact, we show that a single-metric approach may degrade some network parameters without obtaining any substantial improvements. Our first algorithm combines three metrics and a set of weights in such a way that one metric can be prioritized. This leads to an improved quality of multicast sessions, as we show through a number of experiments. In networks where the available resources are highly variable, however, the stability of the video quality is compromised if absolute values of the metrics are adopted. We then propose a second algorithm that uses the relative values of the metrics on a per-entry basis. Computation of the global quality of the multicast session is based on a differential matrix that stores the metrics for each receiver. This scheme takes into account the dynamics of the available resources and the heterogeneity of receivers. The great benefit of this approach is that the global video quality is always improved for every loop of the algorithm.     

Sixth graders’ evaluation strategies when reading Internet search results: an eye-tracking study

Eye-tracking technology was used to examine Internet search result evaluation strategies adopted by sixth-grade students (N?=?36) during ten experimental information search tasks. The relevancy of the search result’s title, URL, and snippet components was manipulated and selection of search results as well as looking into probabilities on the search result components was analysed. The results revealed that during first-pass inspection, students read the search engine page by first looking at the title of a search result. If the title was relevant, the probability of looking at the snippet of the search result increased. During second-pass inspection, there was a high probability of students focusing on the most promising search result by inspecting all of its components before making their selection. A cluster analysis revealed three viewing strategies: half of the students looked mainly at the titles and snippets; one-third with high probability examined all components; and one-sixth mainly focused on titles, leading to more frequent errors in search result selection. The results indicate that students generally made a flexible use of both eliminative and confirmatory evaluation strategies when reading Internet search results, while some seemed to not pay attention to snippet and URL components of the search results.     

A multi-criteria assessment tool for screening preliminary product platform concepts

Platform concept evaluation is a more challenging task than evaluating a single product concept since a platform must effectively support multiple product variants over a prolonged period of time. Existing platform methods develop specific criteria in depth, yet an evaluation of alternative platforms should be based on a broad set of criteria. Based on expert interviews, personal experience, and a literature search we propose a platform assessment tool consisting of 19 criteria for platform evaluation. The criteria are group into six categories: customer satisfaction, variety, after-sale, organization, flexibility, and complexity. The tool is focused on the early platform architecture phase, before proof-of-concept prototyping. However, it can also be used subsequently for platform refinement when more data becomes available. We demonstrate our platform assessment tool through an example with a cordless drill platform.