Understanding and Modeling the Effect of Surfactants in Enhanced Particle Removal from Surfaces in Aqueous Media

The removal of particulate contamination is a critical issue for many manufacturing processes. It is particularly critical to the electronics industry in which small pieces of microscopic debris remaining after chemical mechanical planarization (cmp) using submicron polishing particles can cause device failure. One way to enhance particle removal following the cmp process is to utilize surfactants. Recent research has shown ways to model the effect of surfactants on enhanced particle removal. However, previous research has not demonstrated the effect of ionic strength on enhanced particle removal associated with surfactant use. Past research has also not shown the combined effects of ionic strength and surfactant concentration on enhanced particle removal using surfactants. This article summarizes the parameters affecting particle removal, and it provides data and analysis on the effect of ionic strength as well as the combined effects of ionic strength and surfactant concentration on particle removal following cmp processing.     

Estimating and eliminating redundant data transfers over the web: a fragment based approach

Redundant data transfers over the Web, can be mainly attributed to the repeated transfers of unchanged data. Web caches and Web proxies are some of the solutions that have been proposed, to deal with the issue of redundant data transfers. In this paper we focus on the efficient estimation and reduction of redundant data transfers over the Web. We first prove that a vast amount of redundant data is transferred in Web pages that are considered to carry fresh data. We show this by following an approach based on Web page fragmentation and manipulation. Web pages are broken down to fragments, based on specific criteria. We then deal with these fragments as independent constructors of the Web page and study their change patterns independently and in the context of the whole Web page. After the fragmentation process, we propose solutions for dealing with redundant data transfers. This paper has been based on our previous work on ‘Web Components’ but also on related work by other researchers. It utilises a proxy based, client/server architecture, and imposes changes to the algorithms executed on the Proxy server and on clients. We show that our proposed solution can considerably reduce the amount of redundant data transferred on the Web. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

美国钢铁企业的并购浪潮及特点分析

介绍了最近美国大型钢铁企业发生的主要并购活动。并对这些并购活动的特点进行了分析。     

垂直管吸收器内泡式吸收过程的数值研究

建立垂直管吸收器管内泡式吸收过程中传热传质的数学物理模型，对其泡式吸收过程进行数值研究，获得泡式吸收方式的一些传热传质特性，为吸收器的优化设计提供一定理论指导。     

Characterization of strength properties of thin polycrystalline silicon films for MEMS applications

The aim of this work is to characterize the strength properties of polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon) with the use of tensile and bending test specimens. The strength of thin polysilicon films with different geometry, size and stress concentrations has been measured and correlated with the effective size of the specimen and its stress distribution. The test results are evaluated using a probabilistic strength approach based on the weakest link theory with the use of STAU software. The use of statistic methods of strength prediction of polysilicon test structures with a complex geometry and loading based on test values for standard material tests specimen has been evaluated.     

Brittle fracture of high-strength steels at very low temperatures

High-strength steels are used to increase the load carrying capacity of components. However, to guarantee a safe design, it is also necessary to combine high strength with adequate fracture toughness. In this paper, fracture toughness of three high-strength steels with yield strengths ranging from 460 to 890 MPa has been studied at very low temperatures. Taking into account experimental evidence, a new mechanism of cleavage at very low temperatures is proposed. This mechanism considers the possibility of reaching the ideal strength (the stress at which the lattice of a single crystal losses its stability) in the immediate vicinity of the fatigue crack tip. Moreover, a computational model able to calculate the external load needed to produce a catastrophic failure of these steels has been developed.     

A direct estimate of JIc from the load versus load-line displacement record

The purpose of this study is to examine the current standard fracture toughness test procedure to determine if there could be an easier method to get a J_Ic value from the test record. The current method for determining J_Ic involves a detailed computational and construction procedure. The objective in this study is to simplify the analysis for the determination of J_Ic. The results of this study show that the load and displacement record for a fracture toughness test can be used to directly estimate a J_Q value, a provisional value for fracture toughness, J_Ic. The J value taken at the maximum load point can be used along with an adjustment factor to estimate a J_Q value. This J_Q estimate is close to the one obtained from the construction procedure of ASTM Standard E 1820. When a unit‐sized specimen is tested, that is, a specimen with a width of 50 mm and a thickness of 25 mm the maximum load point provides a direct estimate of J_Q. Other sizes require a size adjustment factor, which is simply a square root relationship between the width of the test specimen and a unit width. The proposed new method of estimating J_Q is simple in concept and requires a minimum number of calculations. It appears to produce values of J_Q which are comparable to those obtained from the ASTM E1820 construction procedure and may produce less scatter.     

Integrating psychology and politics.

Comments on the article "A house divided? The psychology of red and blue America" by D. C. Seyle and M. L. Newman (see record 2006-11202-001). Seyle and Newman concluded that the red and blue metaphor is inaccurate and proposed a purple America strategy to better convey that the majority of people do not align themselves with political extremes. There is interdisciplinary agreement on this. Although not cited by Seyle and Newman, the findings by Professor Fiorina of Stanford University were reported by the APA Monitor on Psychology in its coverage of the 2005 APA State Leadership Conference (Murray Law, 2005). In contrast to their social psychological analysis, Seyle and Newman were incorrect in concluding that "[a]s psychologists, we are not in a position to change either the elements of the American political system that may spur this conflict or even the decisions made by pundits, politicians, and reporters about the terms they choose to use in political discussion" (p. 579). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

AssetCollector: a system for managing collections of cultural assets

In this paper, AssetCollector is presented, which is a system for managing collections of cultural assets. AssetCollector covers the needs of collection curators towards defining, populating and searching a collection in a flexible way, while supporting them in generating reports based on the collection’s assets and reusing them in order to build web sites and CD-ROMs. In order to support the above functionality, the system provides the content structuring subsystem, the content input subsystem, the search subsystem and the report subsystem. The use of the subsystems is straightforward and requires no technical skills from the curators. AssetCollector has been successfully applied for organizing various collections of cultural assets in Greece, such as archaeological sites, museums and published books. In the future, an evaluation procedure is planned in order to further refine the use of the system according to the targeted users’ needs. Furthermore, more import and export facilities will be provided, which will make the system compliant with widely accepted standards.     

Determination of shear strength values according to EN 408

This paper presents the results of 382 shear tests carried out according to EN 408. The test pieces consisted of spruce (Picea abies) and varied in density and ring width orientation (radial, tangential and at an angle of 45° to the steel plates). In addition pieces containing pith and knots were tested. The paper discusses problems observed when using this test configuration and shows that the test results do not support the characteristic shear strength values as given in EN 338. Moreover, the test results do not support the relationship between characteristic shear strength and characteristic bending strength as given in EN 384.

---

Résumé Cet article présente les résultats de 382 essais de cisaillement menés conformément à EN 408. Les éprouvettes d’essai sont en épicéa (Picea abies) et présentent une variabilité en termes de masse volumique et d’orientation des cernes d’accroissement (radiale, tangentielle, à un angle de 45° par rapport aux plaques métalliques). Des éprouvettes supplémentaires contenant du cœur et des nœuds ont également été testées. L’article évoque les problèmes qui ont été mis en évidence lors de l’utilisation de ce dispositif expérimental et montre que les résultats expérimentaux ne sont pas en accord avec les valeurs caractéristiques de résistance au cisaillement données dans EN 338. De plus, ces résultats ne confirment pas la relation entre résistance caractéristique au cisaillement et résistance caractéristique à la flexion telle que stipulée dans EN 384.