The beginning of immigrant settlement in the Helsinki metropolitan area and the role of social housing

Finland has experienced a rapid increase inimmigration since the beginning of the 1990s.Almost half of the foreign population isconcentrated in the metropolitan area of thecapital, Helsinki. The development andexplanations of their settlement patterns havenot yet been thoroughly studied. It ishypothesised in this study that social housingcan explain the settlement patterns. Indices ofdissimilarity were calculated to study thelevel and development of spatial segregation ofimmigrant groups in the Helsinki metropolitanarea in 1995–99, and the association betweenthe settlement patterns of immigrants andsocial housing was studied by regressionanalysis. Neighbourhood-level data were used.The results indicate that the Helsinkimetropolitan area has avoided extreme ethnicsegregation so far and that segregation isdecreasing. Especially immigrants from poorcountries are clearly associated with socialhousing in their settlement patterns, evenafter adjustment for socio-economic anddemographic differentiation. Also newconstruction of social housing seems to haveaffected the spatial distribution of thisgroup. Despite this dependence, the group isnot extremely segregated, which is probablybecause the social housing sector is nottotally marginalised.     

AHMED experiments on hygroscopic and inert aerosol behaviour in LWR containment conditions: experimental results

Hygroscopic NaOH, CsI, CsOH and inert Ag aerosol behaviour at different temperatures and relative humidities (RH) has been studied in a well instrumented and controlled vessel of 1.81 m³ total free volume. Homogeneous thermal-hydraulic conditions for aerosol measurement in the vessel were achieved. The aerosol number and mass concentration were measured continuously during the experiments using a Condensation Nucleus Counter and a Tapered Element Oscillating Microbalance. The particle size distribution and chemical composition in the test conditions were measured by Berner low pressure impactors. In the case of NaOH the half life of the aerosol mass concentration was more than four times longer at low RH (22%) as compared to high RH (96%). The half lives of the CsOH and CsI aerosols were only twice as long at low RH as compared to high RH. Thus at high RH (96–97%) the half lives of CsOH and CsI were twice as long as the half life for the NaOH aerosol. The faster decay of the NaOH aerosol is due to the smaller density decrease of NaOH during water condensation. CsOH particles grew rapidly to their equilibrium size at all humidities. The measured equilibrium size for CsOH aerosol agree well with the calculated particle size at different RHs. Experimental results were also compared with calculations obtained by severe accident computer codes. These calculated results will be presented in a later paper.     

Wood inspection with non-supervised clustering

Abstract. The appearance of sawn timber has huge natural variations that the human inspector easily compensates for mentally when determining the types of defects and the grade of each board. However, for automatic wood inspection systems these variations are a major source for complication. This makes it difficult to use textbook methodologies for visual inspection. These methodologies generally aim at systems that are trained in a supervised manner with samples of defects and good material, but selecting and labeling the samples is an error-prone process that limits the accuracy that can be achieved. We present a non-supervised clustering-based approach for detecting and recognizing defects in lumber boards. A key idea is to employ a self-organizing map (SOM) for discriminating between sound wood and defects. Human involvement needed for training is minimal. The approach has been tested with color images of lumber boards, and the achieved false detection and error escape rates are low. The approach also provides a self-intuitive visual user interface. Received: 16 December 2000 / Accepted: 8 December 2001 Correspondence to: O. Silvén     

Unambiguous atomic structural determination of single-walled carbon nanotubes by electron diffraction

We introduce a novel non-dimensional “intrinsic layer-line spacing” concept for electron diffraction analysis of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). Accordingly, we develop a unique method for direct determination of chiral indices (n, m) of the carbon nanotubes from their electron diffraction patterns (EDPs). The new method is totally calibration-free. Errors due to the nanotube inclination are specified. The tilt angle of the carbon nanotube with respect to the incident electron beam is simultaneously evaluated, thus the effect of the tube tilting is compensated for in the (n, m) determination. Several effective procedures are proposed to cross-check the results by using abundant information contained in the diffraction patterns. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated on both simulated and experimental diffraction patterns from single-walled nanotubes. The technique can be extended to structural analysis of nanotubes of structure similar to carbon nanotubes, such as boron nitride nanotubes.     

Carbon nanotubes and onions from carbon monoxide using Ni(acac)2 and Cu(acac)2 as catalyst precursors

New catalyst precursors (copper and nickel acetylacetonates) have been used successfully for the synthesis of carbon nanotubes and onion particles from carbon monoxide. Catalyst nanoparticles and carbon products were produced by metal-organic precursor vapour decomposition and catalytic disproportionation of carbon monoxide in a laminar flow reactor at temperatures between 705 and 1216 °C. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were formed in the presence of nickel particles at 923-1216 °C. The CNTs were single-walled, 1-3 nm in diameter and up to 90 nm long. Hollow carbon onion particles (COPs) were produced in the presence of copper particles at 1216 °C. The COPs were from 5 to 30 nm in diameter and consisted of several concentric carbon layers surrounding a hollow core. The results of computational fluid dynamics calculations to determine the temperature and velocity profiles and mixing conditions of the species in the reactor are presented. The mechanisms for the formation of both CNTs and COPs are discussed on the basis of the experimental and computational results.     

Carousel interferometer

A new type of a swinging interferometer, the carousel interferometer, is presented, and its properties are studied and compared with other swinging interferometers. The new interferometer is built with five plane mirrors. The optical path difference is accomplished by rotation of a system that consists of four mirrors. The modulation is almost independent of the scanning of the interferometer. It is not sensitive to external perturbations such as bending or other deformations of the mount. The construction is very compact. Because of its stability and low cost it is very applicable to small Fourier-transform spectrometers for any wave-number region from the far infrared down to the ultraviolet.     

Floating Catalyst Chemical Vapor Deposition Patterning Nitrogen-Doped Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes for Shape Tailorable and Flexible Micro-Supercapacitors

Micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) as high-power density energy storage units are designed to meet the booming development of flexible electronics, requiring simple and fast fabrication technology. Herein, a fast and direct solvent-free patterning method is reported to fabricate shape-tailorable and flexible MSCs by floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition (FCCVD). The nitrogen-doped single-walled carbon nanotubes (N-SWCNTs) are directly deposited on a patterned filter by FCCVD with designable patterns and facilely dry-transferred on versatile substrates. The obtained MSCs deliver an excellent areal capacitance of 3.6 mF cm⁻² and volumetric capacitance of 98.6 F cm⁻³ at a scan rate of 5 mV s⁻¹ along with excellent long-term cycle stability over 125 000 circles. Furthermore, the MSCs show good performance uniformity, which can be readily integrated via connection in parallel or series to deliver a stable high voltage (4 V with five serially connected devices) and large capacitance (5.1 mF with five parallel devices) at a scan rate of 100 mV s⁻¹, enabling powering the light emitting displays. Therefore, this method blazes the trail of directly preparing flexible, shape-customizable, and high-performance MSCs.     

Aerosol Synthesis of Inhalation Particles via a Droplet-to-Particle Method

Inhalation powders with consistent particle properties, including particle size, size distribution, and shape were produced with an aerosol synthesis method. Compared to conventional spray drying, the aerosol method provides better control of the thermal history and residence time of each droplet and product particle due to the laminar flow in the heated zone of the reactor where the droplet drying and particle formation take place. A corticosteroid, beclomethasone dipropionate, generally used for asthma treatment was chosen as a representative material to demonstrate the process. Spherical particles were produced with a droplet-to-particle method from an ethanolic precursor solution. The droplets produced with an ultrasonic nebulizer were carried to a heated zone of the reactor at 50-150°C where the solvent was evaporated and dry particles formed. The mass mean diameter of the particles were well within the respirable size range (approximately 2 μm). The geometric standard deviation (GSD) of produced particles was approximately 2. The particle surface structure varied from smooth to rough depending on the degree of particle crystallinity and was affected by the thermal history of the particle. Amorphous particles with smooth surface were most likely obtained due to the rapid evaporation of the solvent from the droplet combined with the slow diffusion of the beclomethasone dipropionate molecule. The amorphous particles were transformed slowly to crystalline particles in the open atmosphere. In addition, the particle surface structure changed from smooth to rough during storage. The process was accelerated by thermal post-annealing. However, additional heating also increased particle sintering. By optimizing the reactor parameters, and thus increasing the molecular diffusion, stable, crystalline particles were produced at 150°C.     

Influence of different carbon nanostructures on the electrocatalytic activity and stability of Pt supported electrocatalysts

Commercially available graphitized carbon nanofibers and multi-walled carbon nanotubes, two carbon materials with very different structure, have been functionalized in a nitric–sulfuric acid mixture. Further on, the materials have been platinized by a microwave assisted polyol method. The relative degree of graphitization has been estimated by means of Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction while the relative concentration of oxygen containing groups has been estimated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, which resulted in a graphitic character trend: Pt/GNF > Pt/F-GNF ? Pt/MWCNT > Pt/F-MWCNT. Transmission electron microscopy showed that the Pt particle size is around 3 nm for all samples, which was similar to the crystallite size obtained by X-ray diffraction. The activity towards electrochemical reduction of oxygen has been quantified using the thin-film rotating disk electrode, which has shown that all the samples have a better activity than the commercially available electrocatalysts. The trend obtained for the graphitic character maintained for the electrochemical activity, while the reverse trend has been obtained for the accelerated ageing test. Long-term potential cycling has demonstrated that the functionalization improves the stability for multi-walled carbon nanotubes, at the cost of decreased activity.