Characterisation of the Etching Quality in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems by Thermal Transient Methodology

Our paper presents a non-destructive thermal transient measurement method that is able to reveal differences even in the micron size range of MEMS structures. Devices of the same design can have differences in their sacrificial layers as consequence of the differences in their manufacturing processes e.g. different etching times. We have made simulations examining how the etching quality reflects in the thermal behaviour of devices. These simulations predicted change in the thermal behaviour of MEMS structures having differences in their sacrificial layers. The theory was tested with measurements of similar MEMS devices prepared with different etching times. In the measurements we used the T3Ster thermal transient tester equipment. The results show that deviations in the devices, as consequence of the different etching times, result in different temperature elevations and manifest also as shift in time in the relevant temperature transient curves.Comment: Submitted on behalf of TIMA Editions (http://irevues.inist.fr/tima-editions

On the mechanism of irradiation enhanced exchange bias

By means of layer resolved ion irradiation the mechanisms involved in the irradiation driven modifications of the exchange bias effect in NiFe/FeMn bilayers have been investigated. It is shown that not only the locations of the defects but also the magnetic coupling between both layers during the irradiation process is of crucial importance. This requires an extension of current models accounting for defects in exchange bias systems.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, revised version, added results from further structural characterization by TEM, submitted to Europhysics Letter

The database BIOSCAT: a tool for structure research by scattering and hydrodynamic methods

The crystal structures of a large number of proteins and nucleic acids are known and the corresponding sets of coordinates are stored in the Brookhaven Protein Data Bank. For structure investigations of biological macromolecules in solution, scattering and hydrodynamical methods are powerful biophysical tools when starting the data interpretation on the basis of the crystal structure of the molecules. The database BIOSCAT covers the main structural parameters estimable by X-ray scattering, translation and rotation diffusion methods and the X-ray scattering intensities and low- and high-resolution real-space electron distance distribution functions of 70 biological macromolecules and of oligonucleotides in standard conformation. The parameters and the scattered intensities are calculated from the atomic coordinates using the improved cube method and the real-space functions are estimated via a termination-error-reduced Fourier sine transformation. The database access is organized by the program PASSDB, which can generally be used for 'readable' databases. A simple query language allows enquiries into the database without knowledge of a programming language. The program CONVSQL converts the database into normalized relations that can be handled by structured query languages (SQLs)

The Texture of Surficial Sediments in Western Long Island Sound off the Norwalk Islands, Connecticut

Grain-size analyses were performed on 69 samples from western Long Island Sound. The relative grain-size frequency distributions and related statistics are reported herein. Descriptions of the benthic character from video tapes and still camera photographs of the bottom at these stations, and 33 others, are also presented. The southern and eastern parts of the study area are dominated by poorly sorted clayey silts that have nearly symmetrical distributions. Gravelly sediments are prevalent in the shallow northwestern part of the study area, but are also present in central part of the study area. Bands of sand, silty sand, and sand-silt-clay occur on the flanks of the gravelly areas

Assessing the Quality of Actions

While recent advances in computer vision have provided reliable methods to recognize actions in both images and videos, the problem of assessing how well people perform actions has been largely unexplored in computer vision. Since methods for assessing action quality have many real-world applications in healthcare, sports, and video retrieval, we believe the computer vision community should begin to tackle this challenging problem. To spur progress, we introduce a learning-based framework that takes steps towards assessing how well people perform actions in videos. Our approach works by training a regression model from spatiotemporal pose features to scores obtained from expert judges. Moreover, our approach can provide interpretable feedback on how people can improve their action. We evaluate our method on a new Olympic sports dataset, and our experiments suggest our framework is able to rank the athletes more accurately than a non-expert human. While promising, our method is still a long way to rivaling the performance of expert judges, indicating that there is significant opportunity in computer vision research to improve on this difficult yet important task.National Science Foundation (U.S.). Graduate Research FellowshipGoogle (Firm) (Research Award)United States. Office of Naval Research. Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (N000141010933

Break junctions of the heavy-fermion superconductors

Mechanical-controllable break junctions of the heavy-fermion superconductors can show Josephson-like superconducting anomalies. But a systematic study on the contact size demonstrates that these anomalies are mainly due to Maxwell's resistance being suppressed in the superconducting heavy-fermion phase. Up to day, we could not find any superconducting features by vacuum-tunnelling spectroscopy, providing further evidence for the pair-breaking effect of the heavy-fermion interfaces.Comment: 5 pages, EPS figures included, REVTeX, to be published in Physica B 9

6sterreichische Wasser- und Abfallwirtschaft / Was? Wie? Warum? Jugendliche erforschen Flusslandschaften \u2013 F\uf6rderung des Systemverst\ue4ndnisses als Basis f\ufcr gelebte Partizipation im Flussgebietsmanagement

Flusslandschaftsplanung und -management im Sinne einer zukunftsvertr\ue4glichen Entwicklung einer Flusslandschaft sind dem Prinzip der Nachhaltigkeit verpflichtet. Ziel ist es dabei, eine Entwicklung von Flusslandschaften zu initiieren, die die Anforderungen des Natur- und Gew\ue4sserschutzes mit den sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Anspr\ufcchen in Einklang bringt und die betroffenen B\ufcrgerInnen in den Entscheidungsprozess einbezieht. Systemverst\ue4ndnis und \uf6kologische Handlungskompetenz sind f\ufcr Beteiligungsprozesse wesentliche Voraussetzungen. Im Oktober 2014 startete im Rahmen des Forschungsprogrammes \u201eSparkling Science\u201c des Bundesministeriums f\ufcr Wissenschaft, Forschung und Wirtschaft das Projekt \u201eTraisen.w3 \u2013 Traisen. Was? Wie? Warum? \u2013 Identifizierung und Wahrnehmung von Funktionen in Flusslandschaften und Verstehen einzugsgebietsbezogener Prozesse am Beispiel der Traisen\u201c. In diesem Projekt arbeitet ein WissenschaftlerInnen-Team gemeinsam mit Sch\ufclerInnen und P\ue4dagogInnen zweier Oberstufenklassen des BG/BRG St. P\uf6lten \ufcber einen Zeitraum von zwei Jahren zu Forschungsfragen des Flusslandschaftsmanagements am Beispiel der Traisen. Neben der Integration der Sch\ufclerInnen in den Forschungsprozess, in Freilandarbeiten und Datenauswertungen und -interpretationen ist vor allem die Entwicklung von Systemverst\ue4ndnis in Bezug auf Prozesse in Flusslandschaften Ziel des Projektes. Die Sch\ufclerInnen wurden mithilfe der Lern-Software \u201eDynaLearn\u201c angeregt, sich konzeptuelles und kausales Wissen anzueignen und damit systemische Prozesse in der Umwelt zu verstehen und in qualitative Modelle umzusetzen. Als weiteres Instrument, die Komplexit\ue4t von Flusslandschaften anzusprechen, wurde das Konzept der 6kosystemleistungen verwendet. In Wissenstests sowie durch die Auswertung der qualitativen Sch\ufclerInnen-Modelle wurden das Wissen und das Systemverst\ue4ndnis der Sch\ufclerinnen vor und nach den gemeinsamen Aktivit\ue4ten evaluiert. Die Auswertungen zeigten, dass regionales Wissen \ufcber den Heimatfluss und Vorg\ue4nge im Einzugsgebiet nicht im Bewusstsein der Jugendlichen verankert sind. Aufgrund der durchgef\ufchrten Schul-Workshops konnte ein signifikanter Zuwachs des Wissens und Verst\ue4ndnisses der Sch\ufclerInnen festgestellt werden. Die Modelle der Sch\ufclerInnen zeigten die komplexen Fragestellungen im Flussgebietsmanagement auf. Alle Modell-Szenarien der Jugendlichen spiegelten nachhaltige Entwicklungen der Flusslandschaft wider und belegten ein ma fgeblich gesteigertes Verst\ue4ndnis der Sch\ufclerInnen f\ufcr wichtige kausale Zusammenh\ue4nge an der Traisen. Die Ergebnisse dokumentieren weiters, dass das Konzept der 6kosystemleistungen eine geeignete Methode zur Wissensvermittlung von komplexen Zusammenh\ue4ngen in Flusslandschaften darstellt. Die Erhebung der Wahrnehmung von 6kosystemleistungen durch B\ufcrgerInnen, insbesondere Jugendliche, kann zu einer umfassenden Betrachtung der Flusslandschaft in zuk\ufcnftigen Planungen im Flusslandschaftsmanagement beitragen. Mittels der in diesem Rahmen identifizierten Wissensl\ufccken und des fehlenden Umweltverst\ue4ndnisses kann der zuk\ufcnftige Bildungsbedarf hinsichtlich Funktionsf\ue4higkeit und Leistungen von Flusslandschaften abgesch\ue4tzt werden. Gerade bei jungen Menschen ist es wichtig, das Interesse f\ufcr Umwelthemen zu f\uf6rdern und eine m\uf6gliche Beteiligung an Entscheidungen zu forcieren. Gezielte Initiativen sind notwendig, damit junge Menschen zuk\ufcnftig als BewohnerInnen und NutzerInnen der Flusslandschaften nachhaltige Planungen und Ma fnahmen unterst\ufctzen, sich aktiv an der Entscheidungsfindung beteiligen und damit Verantwortung f\ufcr die Gestaltung ihrer Umwelt \ufcbernehmen.River landscape planning and management to promote the positive long-term development of river landscapes must adhere to the principle of sustainability. In this context, the goal is to initiate a development process for river landscapes that successfully reconciles the requirements of nature and water conservation with social and economic aspects, and which actively involves affected citizens in the decision-making process. A systems-based understanding and the opportunity to make ecologically relevant decisions are essential prerequisites for participative processes. In the context of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy research program \u201cSparkling Science,\u201d the project \u201cTraisen.w3 \u2013 Traisen. What?How?Why? \u2013 Identification and Perception of Functions in River Landscapes and Understanding Catchment-related Processes on the Example of the Traisen River\u201d was launched in October 2014. The project involves a team of scientists working together with teachers and students from two high-school classes from the BG/BRG St. P\uf6lten schools over a two-year period to investigate central research questions on river landscape management using the example of the Traisen River. Beyond integrating the students in the research process, in field work, and in assessing and interpreting results, one of the project\u2019s central goals is to promote a systems-based understanding of the processes at work in river landscapes. With the help of the learning software program \u201cDynaLearn,\u201d students were encouraged to acquire both conceptual and problem-solving skills, which in turn allowed them to better understand systematic processes in the environment and implement those processes in qualitative models. The concept of ecosystem services was employed as a further means of approaching the complexity of river landscapes. Using knowledge-based tests and by assessing their qualitative models, the students\u2019 systems-based understanding before and after their shared activities was evaluated. The results show that regional knowledge of their home river and key processes in its catchment area is not anchored in the students\u2019 minds. The school workshops confirmed a significant increase in the students\u2019 knowledge and grasp of the subject matter, while the models they produced illustrate the complex questions involved in river landscape management. All of the model scenarios the students depicted reflect sustainable developments in the river landscape and evince their considerably improved grasp of important causal relationships on the Traisen. The results also confirm that the concept of ecosystem services offers a suitable method for conveying complex interrelationships in river landscapes. Raising awareness of ecosystem services among citizens, and especially among young people, can help to ensure that more comprehensive approaches are utilized in future river landscape planning and management efforts. Further, the gaps in knowledge and lack of environmental awareness identified in the course of the project can be used to determine the future need for education on the functions of and ecosystem services provided by river landscapes. When it comes to young people, it is essential that we promote their interest in environmental issues and offer them opportunities to join in decision-making processes. Focused initiatives are called for to ensure that these future inhabitants and users of river landscapes support sustainable planning and measures, actively participate in decision-making, and in so doing take on responsibility for shaping their own environment

Control of interlayer exchange coupling in Fe/Cr/Fe trilayers by ion beam irradiation

The manipulation of the antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling in the epitaxial Fe/Cr/Fe(001) trilayer system by moderate 5 keV He ion beam irradiation has been investigated experimentally. It is shown that even for irradiation with very low fluences (10^14 ions/cm^2) a drastic change in strength of the coupling appears. For thin Cr-spacers (below 0.6 - 0.7 nm) the coupling strength decreases with fluence, becoming ferromagnetic for fluences above (2x10^14 ions/cm^2). The effect is connected with the creation of magnetic bridges in the layered system due to atomic exchange events caused by the bombardment. For thicker Cr spacers (0.8 - 1.2 nm) an enhancement of the antiferromagnetic coupling strength is found. A possible explanation of the enhancement effect is given.Comment: Submitted to PR

The controversy in the γγ→ρρ\gamma\gamma\to\rho\rho process: potential scattering or qqqˉqˉqq\bar{q}\bar{q} resonance ?

The $\gamma\gamma\to\rho^0\rho^0\to 4 \pi$ reaction shows a broad peak at 1.5 GeV in the $(J^P,J_z)=(2^+,2)$ channel which has no counterpart in the $\rho^+\rho^-$ channel. This "resonance" is considered as a candidate for a $qq\bar q\bar q$ state in the "s-channel". We show, however, that it can also be explained by potential scattering of $\rho^0\rho^0$ via the $\sigma$- exchange in the "t-channel".Comment: 12 pages, latex, 3 postscript figures, to appear in Zeitschrift fur Physi