Comparative study of Cl₂, Cl₂/O₂, and Cl₂/N₂ inductively coupled plasma processes for etching of high-aspect-ratio photonic-crystal holes in InP

An extensive investigation has been performed on inductively coupled plasmaetching of InP. An important motivation for this work is the fabrication of high-aspect-ratio holes for photonic crystals. The essential chemistry is based on Cl₂ with the addition of N₂ or O₂ for sidewall passivation. The influence of different process parameters such as gas flows, temperature,pressure, ion energy, and inductively coupled plasma power on the hole geometry is presented. It is concluded that photonic crystals can be etched with Cl₂ only; however, temperature and pressure control is critical. Adding passivation gases largely broadens the window in the parameter space for hole etching. Most importantly, etching of narrow holes can be carried out at higher temperatures where the etching is mass limited and spontaneous etching of InP by Cl₂ occurs.Part of this research is supported by NanoNed, a technology program of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs

Давидові псалми в інтерпретації Ліни Костенко

The article studies king David’s psalms’ transformation in the light of the author’s personality. There is a study of national, politic context and Christian myths, poetic interpretation in the work. The concept of parallel comparison for the Psalter’s text and the poetry of Lina Kostenko is used. We can trace poet’s credo and her self-analyzing in a little investigated triptych of poetry «Psalms of David»

Integrability of a conducting elastic rod in a magnetic field

We consider the equilibrium equations for a conducting elastic rod placed in a uniform magnetic field, motivated by the problem of electrodynamic space tethers. When expressed in body coordinates the equations are found to sit in a hierarchy of non-canonical Hamiltonian systems involving an increasing number of vector fields. These systems, which include the classical Euler and Kirchhoff rods, are shown to be completely integrable in the case of a transversely isotropic rod; they are in fact generated by a Lax pair. For the magnetic rod this gives a physical interpretation to a previously proposed abstract nine-dimensional integrable system. We use the conserved quantities to reduce the equations to a four-dimensional canonical Hamiltonian system, allowing the geometry of the phase space to be investigated through Poincar\'e sections. In the special case where the force in the rod is aligned with the magnetic field the system turns out to be superintegrable, meaning that the phase space breaks down completely into periodic orbits, corresponding to straight twisted rods.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figur

Administration of drinking water supplement containing organic acids and medium chain fatty acids to sows significantly reduced incidence of Clostridium-associated diarrhoea in neonatal piglets: a case study

Neonatal diarrhoea in newborn piglets is an important problem in pig production that is frequently diagnosed as being the result of Clostridium perfringens infections. During parturition and in the first hours of life, the sow transmits the pathogen to its offspring. The objective of this study was to examine the possible prophylactic effect of a drinking water supplement containing organic acids and medium chain fatty acids (Selko-4-Health©), administered to sows on prevalence of neonatal diarrhoea in piglets during early lactation. The study was carried out at a farm with 1300 sows with a high incidence of neonatal diarrhoea. Gestating sows received the water supplement (0.1% per litre) daily from day 35 to end of gestation and during the lactation phase for 2 days a week

Rehabilitation patients: undernourished and obese?

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of undernutrition in patients in Dutch rehabilitation centres and to measure the diagnostic accuracy of available screening tools. METHODS: This cross-sectional multicentre study was conducted in 11 rehabilitation centres in The Netherlands. Patient's nutritional status was determined by the amount of weight loss during the last 1, 3 and 6 months and body mass index (BMI). Diagnostic accuracy was assessed for 5 screening tools: Short Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire (SNAQ), Short Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire Residential Care (SNAQRC), SNAQ65+, Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool and Mini nutrition Assessment-short form. RESULTS: Twenty-eight percent of the patients were severely undernourished and 10% were moderately undernourished. In the undernourished group, 28% were overweight (BMI 25-30) and 19% were obese (BMI > 30). The SNAQ65+ is the recommended screening tool due to its high diagnostic accuracy (sensitivity 96%, specificity 77%, positive predictive value 62%, negative predictive value 90%) and quick and easy use. The MNA had the worst diagnostic accuracy, with a sensitivity of 44%. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of undernutrition in patients in Dutch rehabilitation centres is high. Almost half of the undernourished patients were overweight or obese. Therefore, it is important not only to screen for undernutrition, but also carefully to assess possible overweight/obesity in every undernourished rehabilitation patient

Crop growth models for the -omics era: the EU-SPICY project

The prediction of phenotypic responses from genetic and environmental information is an area of active research in genetics, physiology and statistics. Rapidly increasing amounts of phenotypic information become available as a consequence of high throughput phenotyping techniques, while more and cheaper genotypic data follow from the development of new genotyping platforms. , A wide array of -omics data can be generated linking genotype and phenotype. Continuous monitoring of environmental conditions has become an accessible option. This wealth of data requires a drastic rethinking of the traditional quantitative genetic approach to modeling phenotypic variation in terms of genetic and environmental differences. Where in the past a single phenotypic trait was partitioned in a genetic and environmental component by analysis of variance techniques, nowadays we desire to model multiple, interrelated and often time dependent, phenotypic traits as a function of genes (QTLs) and environmental inputs, while we would like to include transcription information as well. The EU project 'Smart tools for Prediction and Improvement of Crop Yield' (KBBE-2008-211347), or SPICY, aims at the development of genotype-to-phenotype models that fully integrate genetic, genomic, physiological and environmental information to achieve accurate phenotypic predictions across a wide variety of genetic and environmental configurations. Pepper (Capsicum annuum) is chosen as the model crop, because of the availability of genetically characterized populations and of generic models for continuous crop growth and greenhouse production. In the presentation the objectives and structure of SPICY as well as its philosophy will be discussed

InP-based two-dimensional photonic crystals filled with polymers

Polymer filling of the air holes of Indium Phosphide based two-dimensional photonic crystals is reported. After infiltration of the holes with a liquid monomer and solidification of the infill in situ by thermal polymerization, complete filling is proven using scanning electron microscopy. Optical transmission measurements of a filled photonic crystal structure exhibit a redshift of the air band, confirming the complete filling.Comment: To be published in Appl. Phys. Let