Recent sanitary progress in Paris

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The Principles of Proton Probe Microanalysis in Biology

The proton microprobe, more correctly described as an ion microprobe which operates at MeV energies, complements its parent instrument the electron microprobe. This paper compares the basic principles and performance of the two instruments and relates the evolution of biological analysis on such ion microprobes to that on electron microprobes, covering the development of sample handling techniques and of data handling techniques and comparing beam damage studies. The paper describes the variety of techniques available to the ion microprobe - the initial techniques of Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis, Rutherford Back Scattering and Nuclear Reaction Analysis and the rapid evolution of new techniques, from Scanning Transmission Ion Microscopy to 3-dimensional tomography. All of these new techniques required the advanced computerised data handling which has been a feature of ion microprobe development

The automated array assembly task of the low-cost silicon solar array project, phase 2

Several specific processing steps as part of a total process sequence for manufacturing silicon solar cells were studied. Ion implantation was identified as the preferred process step for impurity doping. Unanalyzed beam ion implantation was shown to have major cost advantages over analyzed beam implantation. Further, high quality cells were fabricated using a high current unanalyzed beam. Mechanically masked plasma patterning of silicon nitride was shown to be capable of forming fine lines on silicon surfaces with spacings between mask and substrate as great as 250 micrometers. Extensive work was performed on advances in plated metallization. The need for the thick electroless palladium layer was eliminated. Further, copper was successfully utilized as a conductor layer utilizing nickel as a barrier to copper diffusion into the silicon. Plasma etching of silicon for texturing and saw damage removal was shown technically feasible but not cost effective compared to wet chemical etching techniques

Health conditions of heavy vehicle drivers involved in a crash in Western Australia: a retrospective study using linked data

Issue addressed:This retrospective study investigated the health conditions of a cohort of heavy vehicle drivers involved in a crash in Western Australia.Methods: Hospital separation records of heavy vehicle drivers admitted to hospital as a result of a road crash between 1 January 1988 and 31 December 2000 in Western Australia were analysed. Heavy vehicle drivers involved in a crash were first identified using the Western Australian Road Injury Database before linking to their hospital records. All hospital admissions for each driver admitted to hospital for a crash at least once during the study period were subsequently retrieved from the Health Services Linked Database.Results: There were 146 heavy vehicle drivers in the cohort. A total of 964 distinct in-patient episodes (the collection of all hospital admissions for a single event) were recorded for these drivers, with a minimum of one and a maximum of 84 hospital in-patient episodes per driver. The mean number of in-patient episodes for each driver was seven (SD=8.44), including an in-patient episode for a heavy vehicle crash.Conclusion: The evidence presented for the cohort of heavy vehicle drivers hospitalised as a result of road crash confirms that these drivers are characterised with health conditions such as musculoskeletal problems and digestive disorders

Laser-zone Growth in a Ribbon-to-ribbon (RTR) Process Silicon Sheet Growth Development for the Large Area Silicon Sheet Task of the Low Cost Solar Array Project

A technique for growing limited-length ribbons continually was demonstrated. This Rigid Edge technique can be used to recrystallize about 95% of the polyribbon feedstock. A major advantage of this method is that only a single, constant length silicon ribbon is handled throughout the entire process sequence; this may be accomplished using cassettes similar to those presently in use for processing Czochralski waters. Thus a transition from Cz to ribbon technology can be smoothly affected. The maximum size being considered, 3 inches x 24 inches, is half a square foot, and will generate 6 watts for 12% efficiency at 1 sun. Silicon dioxide has been demonstrated as an effective, practical diffusion barrier for use during the polyribbon formation

Processing experiments on non-Czochralski silicon sheet

A program is described which supports and promotes the development of processing techniques which may be successfully and cost-effectively applied to low-cost sheets for solar cell fabrication. Results are reported in the areas of process technology, cell design, cell metallization, and production cost simulation

Measurements of total alkalinity and inorganic dissolved carbon in the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent Southern Ocean between 2008 and 2010

Water column dissolved inorganic carbon and total alkalinity were measured during five hydrographic sections in the Atlantic Ocean and Drake Passage. The work was funded through the Strategic Funding Initiative of the UK's Oceans2025 programme, which ran from 2007 to 2012. The aims of this programme were to establish the regional budgets of natural and anthropogenic carbon in the North Atlantic, the South Atlantic, and the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean, as well as the rates of change of these budgets. This paper describes in detail the dissolved inorganic carbon and total alkalinity data collected along east–west sections at 47° N to 60° N, 24.5° N, and 24° S in the Atlantic and across two Drake Passage sections. Other hydrographic and biogeochemical parameters were measured during these sections, and relevant standard operating procedures are mentioned here. Over 95% of dissolved inorganic carbon and total alkalinity samples taken during the 24.5° N, 24° S, and the Drake Passage sections were analysed onboard and subjected to a first-level quality control addressing technical and analytical issues. Samples taken along 47° N to 60° N were analysed and subjected to quality control back in the laboratory. Complete post-cruise second-level quality control was performed using cross-over analysis with historical data in the vicinity of measurements, and data were submitted to the CLIVAR and Carbon Hydrographic Data Office (CCHDO), the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) and and will be included in the Global Ocean Data Analyses Project, version 2 (GLODAP 2), the upcoming update of Key et al. (2004)

Slow stress relaxation in randomly disordered nematic elastomers and gels

Randomly disordered (polydomain) liquid crystalline elastomers align under stress. We study the dynamics of stress relaxation before, during and after the Polydomain-Monodomain transition. The results for different materials show the universal ultra-slow logarithmic behaviour, especially pronounced in the region of the transition. The data is approximated very well by an equation Sigma(t) ~ Sigma_{eq} + A/(1+ Alpha Log[t]). We propose a theoretical model based on the concept of cooperative mechanical resistance for the re-orientation of each domain, attempting to follow the soft-deformation pathway. The exact model solution can be approximated by compact analytical expressions valid at short and at long times of relaxation, with two model parameters determined from the data.Comment: 4 pages (two-column), 5 EPS figures (included via epsfig