The Youngest Victims: Children and Youth Affected by War

In 1989, the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child declared, “[state parties] shall take all feasible measures to ensure protection and care of children who are affected by an armed conflict.” In addition to attempting to secure the welfare of children in armed conflict, the Convention went on to ban the recruitment and deployment of children during armed conflict. Despite the vast majority of sovereign nations signing and ratifying this agreement, this treaty, unfortunately, has not prevented children and youth from witnessing, becoming victims of, or participating in political, ethnic, religious, and cultural violence across the past three decades. This chapter offers an “ecological perspective” on the psychosocial consequences of exposure to the trauma of war-related violence and social disruption

On tantalum silicon based diffusion barriers for encapsulation of functional elements

Flexible Dünnschichtsolarzellen erfordern eine ebenfalls flexible Verkapselung, um das Absorbermaterial (z.B. Kupfer - Indium – 2 Selenide (CIS) vor der Eindiffusion von Feuchtigkeit und anderen Umwelteinflüssen zu schützen. Diffusionsbarrieren auf Tantal-Silizium Basis sind z. Z. bevorzugtes Material um die Kupferdiffusion in modernen Halbleiterbauelementen zu verhindern. In dieser Arbeit werden Tantal-Silizium-Stickstoff und Tantal-Silizium-Sauerstoff Schichten für die Verkapselung von zukünftigen flexiblen Dünnschichtsolarzellen untersucht und optimiert. CIS-Solarmodule wurden mit dünnen, auf Tantal basierten Barrieren beschichtet. Die Barrierewirkung der Verkapselung wurde untersucht, indem die Veränderungen des Wirkungsgrades dünnschichtverkapselter Module während eines 1000-stündigen beschleunigten Alterungstest bestimmt wurden. Eine wesentliche Verbesserung der Barrierewirkung gegen die Eindiffusion von Feuchtigkeit wurde mit einer reaktiv gesputterten Doppelschicht aus 250 nm Ta-Si-O und 15 nm Ta- Si-N erreicht. Dieses Doppelschichtsystem erreicht bei einer Dicke von 265 nm eine vergleichbare Schutzwirkung wie eine ca. 5 µm dicke Schicht aus SiO2.Flexible thin film solar cells require flexible encapsulation to protect the Copper – Indium – 2 Selenide (CIS) absorber layer from humidity and aggressive environmental influences. Tantalum-Silicon based diffusion barriers are currently a favorite material to prevent future semiconductor devices from copper diffusion. In this work Tantalum-Silicon-Nitrogen and Tantalum-Silicon-Oxygen films were investigated and optimized for thin film solar cell encapsulation of next-generation flexible solar modules. CIS solar modules were coated with Tantalum based barrier layers. The performance of the thin film barrier encapsulation was determined by measuring the remaining module efficiency after a 1000 h accelerated aging test. A significantly enhanced stability against humidity diffusion in comparison to SiO2-encapsulated modules was reached with a reactively sputtered thin film system consisting of 250 nm Ta-Si-O and 15 nm Ta- Si-N

Automatisierung der zerstörungsfreien Prüfung von großen Stahlgussbauteilen

The demands placed on the production of castings in terms of quality, price structure, reliability and variety of shapes are constantly increasing. The Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS is currently working on ultrasonic inspection systems with which large and complex cast steel components could be tested partially or fully automatically in the long term. The aim is to reduce testing costs by shortening throughput times and improving test reliability. A first step towards automated inspection systems is the implementation of position detection systems that support manual inspection. They form the basis for image generation and for the transferability of coordinates to subsequent processing steps

An automated non-destructive testing system for seam bondings in automotive serial production

The joining process of seam bond is used in automobile construction because of the non-visible joints on mounted parts such as doors, hoods or luggage compartment doors. With these components, a structure-providing inner panel is joined with the outer panel, which is visible to the customer. Besides providing stability, particularly in the event of a crash, the joining level is also filled with adhesive to increase the stability and to prevent the ingress of moisture that causes corrosion. These mechanical connections must be tested to ensure that the requirements for proper bonding have been met. As the destructive test used today requires metallographic laboratory with special trained personnel, significant scrap cost and a time consuming process control loop, considerable efforts are being made to develop a capable non-destructive and as far as possible in-line test method. State of the art non-destructive inspection systems for seam bonds are insufficient regarding full part accessibility and reliability in terms of detectability and validation. This paper is focussed on new developed free configurable three-transducer ultrasonic phased array technology including algorithms for data validation and evaluation for an automated process control loop in the automotive car body shop. The paper end with an statistical classification based on an 5-month measurement campaign under industrial in-line conditions. In a first step, a list of possible defects was collected and the detectability in different seam areas was calculated by sound field simulation of the amplitude signals. Second, based on the results from simulation, a measurement setup as excitation sequence was defined. Based on the theoretical findings a inspection system was designed and realized. Within a measurement campaign the inspection system was evaluated in terms of detectability of minimal defect size under non-laboratory conditions. This includes a permanent proof of coupling conditions, monitoring of misalignments, e.g. tilting and surface defects of the car body. In the last step, the testing system is build up and tested within the assembly line. These measurement results show that the identification of common process defects is possible

Ultraschallwandler zur Anregung und/oder zur Detektion von Ultraschall unterschiedler Frequenzen

The transducer has sensor elements (3a, 3b) excitable for sound emission and/or readable for sound detection. The sensor elements include piezoelectric layer elements (2a, 2b) isolated on a planar substrate (1) i.e. silicon wafer, where thicknesses (da, db) and/or materials of the piezoelectric layer elements are different from each other. The piezoelectric layer elements are arranged at a distance from each other in a discrete array arrangement e.g. one-dimensional series arrangement. The substrate is made of silicon, quartz and/or sapphire. An independent claim is also included for a method for manufacturing an ultrasound transducer

Attitudes of New Zealand farmers to methods used to control wild rabbits

Four years after the release of Rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) in New Zealand, we conducted a mail survey of farmers to ascertain their attitudes and practices about rabbit control. A multistage sampling frame (stratified by rabbit-proneness and farm type) was used to select 828 farms in eight geographical regions. The useable response proportion of the survey was 69.3%, and 21% of respondents considered rabbits to be a problem on their farms. Although practices for rabbit control had changed from 1995 to 2001, shooting (practised by 85% of respondents) remained the predominant method used (albeit less frequently than in 1995). Ten percent of farmers used RHDV baiting; of those, 90% released the virus relatively infrequently. Farmers perceived shooting to be the most-humane and environmentally safe method, while RHDV was perceived to be the most effective. Perception of the level of competition for grazing between rabbits and livestock was the factor most-strongly associated with the use of shooting and RHDV. Most (60%) respondents considered the introduction of RHDV to have been beneficial. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Performance Improvement of High Frequency Aluminum Nitride Ultrasonic Transducers

This paper presents three methods to improve the performance of a high frequency aluminum nitride (AlN) ultrasonic transducer. For a high frequency AlN ultrasonic transducer, its properties are related with its top electrode size, electrical impedance matching and layers of the piezoelectric plate. However, until now, no research has been published to analyze their influence on the performance of AlN ultrasonic transducers, especially in the frequency range above 200 MHz. First, two factors related with the top electrode size are proposed based on transmission coefficient and stored energy, and analysis is performed on an Al-AlN-Al on silicon wafers with different electrode sizes. The result proves when the electrode size is 1mm2, the transducer can provide the maximum output voltage and the maximal signal- to-noise ratio (SNR). Then, electrical impedance matching is conducted to improve the performance of transducers, and the experiment result shows that after matching, the resolution and sensitivity have been improved. Finally, a stacked AlN transducer is developed and its model is constructed to analyze its properties in time domain and frequency domain. The comparison between the simulation and the experiment shows the effectiveness of the proposed model, and a stacked structure can be used to improve the sensitivity of a high frequency AlN ultrasonic transducer