Aluminum compounds as additional crosslinkers for air-drying high-solids alkyd paints

Aluminum compounds, especially complexes of alcohols, are known as additional crosslinkers for air-drying alkyd paints. Particularly, the drying behavior of high-solids alkyd systems applied under adverse conditions may be improved distinctly. Besides the ether- and peroxy-crosslinks resulting from oxidative drying, coordinative crosslinking occurs. However, exterior weathering of paint films containing Al-complexes frequently results in severe embrittlement. In order to cope with these problems, drying and aging of alkyds and Al-complexes were investigated. All ligands in the complex appeared to get lost during drying, a probable cause of poor weathering performance. Using specially developed alkyd paints for Al-compounds, possible ways of controlling embrittlement are discussed. P.O. Box 9300, 6800 SB Arnhem, The Netherlands. P.O. Box 3, 2170 BA Sassenheim, The Netherlands.     

Thermionic Emission as a Tool to Study Transport in Undoped nFinFETs

Thermally activated subthreshold transport has been investigated in undoped triple-gate MOSFETs. The evolution of the barrier height and of the active cross-sectional area of the channel as a function of gate voltage has been determined. The results of our experiments and of the tight-binding simulations we have developed are both in good agreement with previous analytical calculations, confirming the validity of the thermionic approach to investigate transport in FETs. This method provides an important tool for the improvement of device characteristics.      

Donor-based single electron pumps with tunable donor binding energy

We report on single electron pumping via a tunable number of individual donors. We use a device that essentially consists of a silicon nanowire with local arsenic implantation between a set of fine gates. A temperature-dependent characterization of the pumped current allows us to extract the ionization energy of a single arsenic donor. We observe the ionization energy to be tunable by the gate electric field over a large range of energies.     

Stroop interference and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A review and meta-analysis.

Previous reviews and meta-analyses that addressed abnormal Stroop interference in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) yielded mixed results. The authors of the present study argue that the inconsistencies may reflect the problematic nature of 2 frequently used methods to quantify Stroop interference-the difference score and Golden's method (C. J. Golden, 1978). Golden's method correction for base-word reading is inadequate, and the difference score is sensitive to the nature of the outcome variable. The latter can be remedied with a ratio score. Contrasting previous meta-analyses, this meta-analysis covers all age groups and all Stroop test variants, and it excludes studies using the Golden quantification method. Mean effect sizes for interference in ADHD as quantified by difference scores relative to control scores were 0.24 across all studies but 1.11 for time-per-item studies; outcome variable was a significant moderator variable, reflecting the sensitivity of the difference score to this variable. Consistency analysis of ratio scores across 19 studies reveals more interference for the ADHD groups relative to the control groups. It is concluded that interference control is consistently compromised in individuals with ADHD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sub-threshold study of undoped trigate nFinFET

Modern MOSFET devices with undoped channel have a non-trivial current distribution, which is gate voltage dependent. In our work we have studied the sub-threshold behavior of undoped triple gate MOSFETs (FinFETs) using a thermionic transport model. We have analyzed the conductance data of such devices, and from this, we have been able to determine the evolution of both the active cross-section area of the channel and the barrier height as a function of the gate voltage. The result of our experiments shows good agreement with tight binding simulations and with analytical results. This confirms the validity of the use of our thermionic approach to study transport in sub-micrometer size FinFET devices and not only in micrometer size samples specially made for characterizations.     

Novel renewable alkyd resins based on imide structures

New bio-based building blocks were synthesized from amino acids like lysine, glycine, and phenylalanine and from di- or tricarboxylic acids like succinic acid and citric acid, respectively. These building blocks were incorporated into alkyd resins by standard polycondensation chemistry and technology. The resulting alkyd resins were evaluated as coating resins, either by casting films from xylene or by making coatings from water-based alkyds after emulsification of the synthesized alkyd resins. The renewability content of the resins could easily be varied between 80 and ca. 95 wt%. The properties of the highly bio-based coatings look promising, some even outperforming standard commercial alkyd resins.     

The relationship between the number of spermatozoa inseminated and the reproductive efficiency of individual dairy bulls

The semen of 20 mature, evaluated bulls was split-sample diluted and contained 2.1 x 10(6) to 17.3 x 10(6) total spermatozoa per 0.25-ml French straw. The number of viable inseminated spermatozoa ranged from 1.1 x 10(6) to 11.8 x 10(6). Each bull had 2430 to 5330 first or second inseminations performed. The nonreturn rate at 56 d after AI was estimated for every dilution. The daily nonreturn rates to 180 d were used to estimate conception and calving rates at a given concentration. The relationship was determined between these estimations and the number of spermatozoa that were actually inseminated. The bulls differed significantly in their maximal nonreturn rate at high sperm numbers per AI and in the rate at which they approached this maximum. There was no correlation between the maximum nonreturn at high sperm numbers and the rate of approach, which implies that the ranking of the bulls for nonreturn rate 56 d after AI changes with the number of spermatozoa inseminated. Multiphasic analysis of reproductive efficiency revealed bull differences in estimated conception and calving rates. The estimated calving rate after conception was 82 to 90% and was independent of the number of spermatozoa that were inseminated. The sperm numbers needed to obtain 95% of the maximal conception rate ranged from 1 x 10(6) to 11 x 10(6).