Laser induced deposition of thin films.

A new chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process has been demonstrated with Si thin films. In this process, reactant gases are heated by absorbing light energy emitted from an IR laser. No other surfaces are heated by the reaction, thus contamination is eliminated, the state (stress, crystallinity, grain size, etc.) of the film can be controlled and unwanted heterogeneous reaction sites are eliminated.Research conducted to date has employed silane (SiH 4) as a reactant and an untuned CO2 laser. Process conditions appropriate for film deposition have been defined. Deposition kinetics, film characteristics and mixed gas optical absorptivities have been measured. Deposition rates are comparable to other low pressure CVD processes (~ 1-10 A/sec) but with much colder substrate temperatures being permitted. The characteristics of initial amorphous Si films indicate that they equal or exceed the quality of films deposited by highly developed plasma or reactive sputtering techniques

Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae in hospital wastewater:a reservoir that may be unrelated to clinical isolates [star]

Summary Background: Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) are an emerging infection control problem in hospitals worldwide. Identifying carriers can help reduce potential spread and infections. Aim: To assess whether testing hospital wastewater for CPE can supplement patient based screening for infection prevention purposes in a hospital without a recognised endemic CPE problem. Methods: Wastewater collected from hospital pipework on 16 occasions during February-March 2014 was screened for CPE using chromID®CARBA agar and chromID®CPS agar with a 10 μg ertapenem disc and combination disc testing. MICs were determined using British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy methodology and carbapenemase genes detected by PCR or wholegenome sequencing. Selected isolates were typed by PFGE. Findings: Suspected CPE were recovered from all 16 wastewater samples. Of 17 isolates sent to Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infections Reference Unit, six (four Citrobacter freundii and two Enterobacter cloacae complex) were New Delhi metallo–beta-lactamase (NDM) producers and the remaining 11 (six Klebsiella oxytoca and five Enterobacter cloacae complex), Guiana-Extended-Spectrum-5 (GES-5) producers, the first to be described in Enterobacteriaceae in the UK. The four NDM-producing C. freundii, two NDM-producing E. cloacae complex and 4/5 GES-5-producing E. cloacae complex were each indistinguishable isolates of the same three strains, whereas the six GES-5-producing K. oxytoca overall shared 79% similarity. Conclusion: CPE are readily isolated from hospital wastewater using simple culture methods. There are either undetected carriers of CPE excreting into the wastewater, or these CPE represent colonisation of the pipework. Surveillance of hospital wastewater for CPE does not appear helpful for infection control purposes

If the Past Teaches, What Does the Future Learn? Ancient Urban Regions and the Durable Future

How can we transform urban environments to encourage durability and mediate the social price of myriad risks and vulnerability?Our work here is to build a bridge from archaeology to mainstream architectural and design theory. The study of places, landscapes, and regions links the two fields. Architecture can be shaped and enhanced by the long-term cultural and geographic perspective afforded by archaeology; architecture can offer archaeology a ride into the future. We hope that our efforts are novel enough to be inspiring and connected enough to allow existing concepts to be furthered. The bridge unites three domains: material, social, and aesthetic. We look to the past to find material technologies—new engineering and conceptual solutions to an array of problems—and the past obliges with many examples. However, these technologies in their material aspects are only part of the story. The archaeologist sees them as playing a role in a system. This system, while mechanically functional, is also profoundly social: it includes administrative structures, but also innumerable other kinds of relationships—kin groups, neighborhoods, genders—that mirror the embedded relations between humans and nature. As in architecture, systems include semantics and aesthetics: not only are these forms pleasing to the eye, but they also tell stories of history and place and give identity and meaning to the lives in which they are enmeshed. This multi-functionality and multi-vocality are inherent in past systems

If the Past Teaches, What Does the Future Learn? Ancient Urban Regions and the Durable Future

How can we transform urban environments to encourage durability and mediate the social price of myriad risks and vulnerability?Our work here is to build a bridge from archaeology to mainstream architectural and design theory. The study of places, landscapes, and regions links the two fields. Architecture can be shaped and enhanced by the long-term cultural and geographic perspective afforded by archaeology; architecture can offer archaeology a ride into the future. We hope that our efforts are novel enough to be inspiring and connected enough to allow existing concepts to be furthered. The bridge unites three domains: material, social, and aesthetic. We look to the past to find material technologies—new engineering and conceptual solutions to an array of problems—and the past obliges with many examples. However, these technologies in their material aspects are only part of the story. The archaeologist sees them as playing a role in a system. This system, while mechanically functional, is also profoundly social: it includes administrative structures, but also innumerable other kinds of relationships—kin groups, neighborhoods, genders—that mirror the embedded relations between humans and nature. As in architecture, systems include semantics and aesthetics: not only are these forms pleasing to the eye, but they also tell stories of history and place and give identity and meaning to the lives in which they are enmeshed. This multi-functionality and multi-vocality are inherent in past systems

Motion frozen 18F-FDG cardiac PET

BackgroundPET reconstruction incorporating spatially variant 3D Point Spread Function (PSF) improves contrast and image resolution. "Cardiac Motion Frozen" (CMF) processing eliminates the influence of cardiac motion in static summed images. We have evaluated the combined use of CMF- and PSF-based reconstruction for high-resolution cardiac PET.MethodsStatic and 16-bin ECG-gated images of 20 patients referred for (18)F-FDG myocardial viability scans were obtained on a Siemens Biograph-64. CMF was applied to the gated images reconstructed with PSF. Myocardium to blood contrast, maximum left ventricle (LV) counts to defect contrast, contrast-to-noise (CNR) and wall thickness with standard reconstruction (2D-AWOSEM), PSF, ED-gated PSF, and CMF-PSF were compared.ResultsThe measured wall thickness was 18.9 ± 5.2 mm for 2D-AWOSEM, 16.6 ± 4.5 mm for PSF, and 13.8 ± 3.9 mm for CMF-PSF reconstructed images (all P < .05). The CMF-PSF myocardium to blood and maximum LV counts to defect contrasts (5.7 ± 2.7, 10.0 ± 5.7) were higher than for 2D-AWOSEM (3.5 ± 1.4, 6.5 ± 3.1) and for PSF (3.9 ± 1.7, 7.7 ± 3.7) (CMF vs all other, P < .05). The CNR for CMF-PSF (26.3 ± 17.5) was comparable to PSF (29.1 ± 18.3), but higher than for ED-gated dataset (13.7 ± 8.8, P < .05).ConclusionCombined CMF-PSF reconstruction increased myocardium to blood contrast, maximum LV counts to defect contrast and maintained equivalent noise when compared to static summed 2D-AWOSEM and PSF reconstruction

If the Past Teaches, What Does the Future Learn? Ancient Urban Regions and the Durable Future

How can we transform urban environments to encourage durability and mediate the social price of myriad risks and vulnerability?Our work here is to build a bridge from archaeology to mainstream architectural and design theory. The study of places, landscapes, and regions links the two fields. Architecture can be shaped and enhanced by the long-term cultural and geographic perspective afforded by archaeology; architecture can offer archaeology a ride into the future. We hope that our efforts are novel enough to be inspiring and connected enough to allow existing concepts to be furthered. The bridge unites three domains: material, social, and aesthetic. We look to the past to find material technologies—new engineering and conceptual solutions to an array of problems—and the past obliges with many examples. However, these technologies in their material aspects are only part of the story. The archaeologist sees them as playing a role in a system. This system, while mechanically functional, is also profoundly social: it includes administrative structures, but also innumerable other kinds of relationships—kin groups, neighborhoods, genders—that mirror the embedded relations between humans and nature. As in architecture, systems include semantics and aesthetics: not only are these forms pleasing to the eye, but they also tell stories of history and place and give identity and meaning to the lives in which they are enmeshed. This multi-functionality and multi-vocality are inherent in past systems

‘Manic mums’ and ‘distant dads’? Gendered geographies of care and the journey to school

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Health & Place. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2011 Elsevier B.V.Research in the geographies of care has identified the central role of mothers in caring for children, although much less explored are the experiences of men who also participate in care. Drawing upon research conducted in the UK with children and their families, this paper contributes to existing debates in the geographies of care by exploring a relatively new space of caring, namely the escort of primary school children to and from school and other settings. The paper explores mothers’ and fathers’ involvement in escorting children, the extent and nature of participation and also how distinct gendered forms of caring practices are established. In doing so, the paper also considers the importance of place and local cultures of parenting which inform these gendered carescapes

Smart Television Services Using NFV/SDN Network Management

International audienceIntegrating joint network function virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networks (SDNs) with digital televisions (TVs) into home environments, has the potential to provide smart TV services to users, and improve their quality of experience (QoE). In this regard, this paper focuses on one of the next generation services so-called follow me service (FMS). FMS is a service offered by 5gNB to user equipments (UEs) in indoor environments (e.g., home), it enables its clients to use their smart phones to select media content from content servers, then cast it on the nearest TV set (e.g., living room) and continue watching on the next TV set (e.g., kitchen) while moving around the indoor coverage area. FMS can be provisioned by utilizing UEs geoloca-tion information and robust mechanisms for switching between multiple 5G radio access technologies (RATs), based on the intelligence of the SDN/NFV intelligent home IP gateway of the Internet of Radio Light (IoRL) project paradigm. In view that the actual IoRL system is at its early development stage, we step forward by using Mininet platform to integrate SDN/NFV virtualization into 5G multi-RAT scenario and provide performance monitoring with measurements for the identified service. Simulation results show the effectiveness of our proposal under various use case scenarios by means of minimizing the packet loss rate and improving QoE of the home users. Index Terms-Software defined networks, network function virtualisation, quality of experience, Internet of radio light, intelligent home IP gateway

Causes and consequences of pronounced variation in the isotope composition of plant xylem water

Stable isotopologues of water are widely used to derive relative root water uptake (RWU) profiles and average RWU depth in lignified plants. Uniform isotope composition of plant xylem water (delta(xyl)) along the stem length of woody plants is a central assumption of the isotope tracing approach which has never been properly evaluated.Here we evaluate whether strong variation in delta(xyl) within woody plants exists using empirical field observations from French Guiana, northwestern China, and Germany. In addition, supported by a mechanistic plant hydraulic model, we test hypotheses on how variation in delta(xyl) can develop through the effects of diurnal variation in RWU, sap flux density, diffusion, and various other soil and plant parameters on the delta(xyl) of woody plants.The hydrogen and oxygen isotope composition of plant xylem water shows strong temporal (i.e., sub-daily) and spatial (i.e., along the stem) variation ranging up to 25.2 parts per thousand and 6.8 parts per thousand for delta H-2 and delta O-18, respectively, greatly exceeding the measurement error range in all evaluated datasets. Model explorations predict that significant delta(xyl) variation could arise from diurnal RWU fluctuations and vertical soil water heterogeneity. Moreover, significant differences in delta(xyl) emerge between individuals that differ only in sap flux densities or are monitored at different times or heights.This work shows a complex pattern of delta(xyl) transport in the soil-root-xylem system which can be related to the dynamics of RWU by plants. These dynamics complicate the assessment of RWU when using stable water isotopologues but also open new opportunities to study drought responses to environmental drivers. We propose including the monitoring of sap flow and soil matric potential for more robust estimates of average RWU depth and expansion of attainable insights in plant drought strategies and responses