Transparent and Flexible Thin Film Electroluminescent Devices Using HiTUS Deposition and Laser Processing Fabrication

Highly transparent thin film electroluminescent structures offering excellent switch on characteristics, high luminance and large break-down voltages have been deposited onto glass and flexible polymeric materials with no substrate heating using high target utilization sputtering. Deposition of ZnS:Mn as the active light emitting layer and Y2O3,Al2O3,Ta2O5, and HfO2 as dielectric materials arranged in single and multiple layer configurations were investigated. Devices incorporating Al2O3,HfO2 quadruple layers demonstrate the highest attainable luminance at low threshold voltage. Single pulse excimer laser irradiation of the phosphor layer prior to deposition of the top dielectric layer enhanced the luminance of the devices. The devices fabricated on glass and polymeric substrates exhibited a maximum luminance of 500 and 450 cdm−2 when driven at 270 VRMS and 220 VRMS, respectively, with a 1.0 kHz sine wave

Theoretical modeling of two-color coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy spectra measured with a frequency-doubled, multimode pump laser

We have theoretically modeled coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy spectra of nitrogen measured with a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG pump laser. The fluctuations of the multimode pump field are modeled using a field variable having non-Gaussian statistics derived from a functional dependence on a Gaussian field. Both isolated and multiple, overlapping transitions are treated. The model qualitatively predicts the non-Gaussian effects observed in experiments but somewhat overemphasizes the magnitude of these features

Methods, results and policy implications of poverty and food security mapping assessments

The importance of poverty reduction to the world development agenda has motivated greater interest in the geographic dimensions of poverty and food security. This special issue of Food Policy includes examples of poverty and food security mapping used to support policy development in agricultural and rural areas. The volume includes eight country case studies and one cross-country comparison that illustrate advances in our capacity to assess welfare over large areas and at detailed spatial resolutions. Poverty mapping facilitates assessments of the role of environmental factors on the broad spatial pattern of poverty and food security. Evaluating proximity and accessibility in welfare outcomes can improve our knowledge of poverty patterns and processes. Spatial statistics can enhance our understanding of geographic and neighbourhood effects on poverty and food security outcomes. The development of effective policies requires increased collaboration among stakeholders, researchers and policy makers in constructing and using poverty and food security maps

The Child Feeding Guide:A digital health intervention for reducing controlling child feeding practices and maternal anxiety over time

Fussy eating and food refusal are common in young children. These behaviours can contribute to anxiety or concern in parents and caregivers, who have called for credible support to help them navigate the challenges of feeding young children. Given recent increases in technology, and use of the Internet as a trusted source of parenting support, the Child Feeding Guide digital health intervention was created to provide evidence-based support to parents and caregivers to help them to feed children and establish healthy eating habits from the early years. An evaluation was conducted with 25 mothers (with a child aged 6 months to 4 years) who used the Child Feeding Guide website/app over 4 weeks. Mothers provided information about their feeding practices and anxiety levels at baseline, and again 4 weeks later, and answered questions regarding the acceptability and use of the digital support resource. Significant decreases were seen in maternal anxiety and in maternal use of pressure to eat and restriction of food from children for weight reasons. Mothers reported that the Child Feeding Guide was easy to use, that they valued its credibility and reassurances, and that its content helped them to better understand their child’s eating behaviour. These promising findings suggest that naturalistic use of a digital health intervention could contribute to reductions in mothers’ use of controlling feeding practices and levels of anxiety. Such findings are important for supporting the development of healthy eating habits in young children and are likely to be relevant to health and childcare professionals

Bayes linear kinematics in the analysis of failure rates and failure time distributions

Collections of related Poisson or binomial counts arise, for example, from a number of different failures in similar machines or neighbouring time periods. A conventional Bayesian analysis requires a rather indirect prior specification and intensive numerical methods for posterior evaluations. An alternative approach using Bayes linear kinematics in which simple conjugate specifications for individual counts are linked through a Bayes linear belief structure is presented. Intensive numerical methods are not required. The use of transformations of the binomial and Poisson parameters is proposed. The approach is illustrated in two examples, one involving a Poisson count of failures, the other involving a binomial count in an analysis of failure times

Systematic perturbation approach for a dynamical scaling law in a kinetically constrained spin model

The dynamical behaviours of a kinetically constrained spin model (Fredrickson-Andersen model) on a Bethe lattice are investigated by a perturbation analysis that provides exact final states above the nonergodic transition point. It is observed that the time-dependent solutions of the derived dynamical systems obtained by the perturbation analysis become systematically closer to the results obtained by Monte Carlo simulations as the order of a perturbation series is increased. This systematic perturbation analysis also clarifies the existence of a dynamical scaling law, which provides a implication for a universal relation between a size scale and a time scale near the nonergodic transition.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, v2; results have been refined, v3; A figure has been modified, v4; results have been more refine