Mental Health Problems and Barriers to Service Use in Dutch Young Adults

Only up to one-third of young adults with a mental disorder seek professional help. The reasons for this low help-seeking rate are largely unclear. The first aim of this thesis is to explain why young adults are unlikely to seek professional help when facing mental health problems. The second aim is to provide insight into problem behaviours that typically first emerge in young adulthood: i.e., psychotic symptoms and problems related to alcohol use

Irradiation response of mobile protons in buried SiO{sub 2}

Trapping of mobile protons is observed in various SOI materials, but only upon irradiating under a positive top Si bias. Thermal detrapping shows that the proton traps are shallow and located near the substrate Si/SiO{sub 2} interface

Direct observation of mobile protons in SiO{sub 2} thin films: Potential application in a novel memory device

In this work we show that annealing of silicon/silicon-dioxide/silicon structures in forming gas (N{sub 2}:H{sub 2}; 95:5) above 500{degrees}C leads to spontaneous incorporation of mobile H{sup +} ions in the buried SiO{sub 2} layer. We demonstrate that, unlike the alkali ions feared as killer contaminants in the early days, the space charge distribution of these mobile protons within the buried oxide layer can be very well controlled and easily rearranged with relatively high speed at room temperature. The hysteresis in the flat band voltage shift provides a unique vehicle to study proton kinetics in silicon dioxide thin films. It is further shown how this effect can be used as the basis for a reliable nonvolatile FET memory device that has potential to be competitive with state-of-the-art Si-based memory technologies. The power of this novel device is its simplicity; it requires few processing steps, all of which are standard in Si integrated-circuit fabrication

Hearing aids do not alter cortical entrainment to speech at audible levels in mild-to-moderately hearing-impaired subjects

Background: Cortical entrainment to speech correlates with speech intelligibility and attention to a speech stream in noisy environments. However, there is a lack of data on whether cortical entrainment can help in evaluating hearing aid fittings for subjects with mild to moderate hearing loss. One particular problem that may arise is that hearing aids may alter the speech stimulus during (pre-)processing steps, which might alter cortical entrainment to the speech. Here, the effect of hearing aid processing on cortical entrainment to running speech in hearing impaired subjects was investigated. Methodology: Seventeen native English-speaking subjects with mild-to-moderate hearing loss participated in the study. Hearing function and hearing aid fitting were evaluated using standard clinical procedures. Participants then listened to a 25-minute audiobook under aided and unaided conditions at 70 dB A sound pressure level (SPL) in quiet conditions. EEG data were collected using a 32-channel system. Cortical entrainment to speech was evaluated using decoders reconstructing the speech envelope from the EEG data. Null decoders, obtained from EEG and the time-reversed speech envelope, were used to assess the chance level reconstructions. Entrainment in the delta- (1-4 Hz) and theta- (4-8 Hz) band, as well as wideband (1-20 Hz) EEG data was investigated. Results: Significant cortical responses could be detected for all but one subject in all three frequency bands under both aided and unaided conditions. However, no significant differences could be found between the two conditions in the number of responses detected, nor in the strength of cortical entrainment. The results show that the relatively small change in speech input provided by the hearing aid was not sufficient to elicit a detectable change in cortical entrainment. Conclusion: For subjects with mild to moderate hearing loss, cortical entrainment to speech in quiet at an audible level is not affected by hearing aids. These results clear the pathway for exploring the potential to use cortical entrainment to running speech for evaluating hearing aid fitting at lower speech intensities (which could be inaudible when unaided), or using speech in noise conditions

THE EFFECT OF NEAR-INTERFACE NETWORK STRAIN ON THE MOBILITY OF PROTONS IN Si02

35-word abstract Our data suggest a correlation between near-interface strain in SiOz and the ratio of fixed vs. mobile positive charge generated at the interface during forming gas annealing. A model based on firstprinciples quantum mechanical calculations supports this correlation

A Nonvolatile MOSFET Memory Device Based on Mobile Protons in SiO(2) Thin Films

It is shown how mobile H{sup +} ions can be generated thermally inside the oxide layer of Si/SiO{sub 2}/Si structures. The technique involves only standard silicon processing steps: the nonvolatile field effect transistor (NVFET) is based on a standard MOSFET with thermally grown SiO{sub 2} capped with a poly-silicon layer. The capped thermal oxide receives an anneal at {approximately}1100 C that enables the incorporation of the mobile protons into the gate oxide. The introduction of the protons is achieved by a subsequent 500-800 C anneal in a hydrogen-containing ambient, such as forming gas (N{sub 2}:H{sub 2} 95:5). The mobile protons are stable and entrapped inside the oxide layer, and unlike alkali ions, their space-charge distribution can be controlled and rapidly rearranged at room temperature by an applied electric field. Using this principle, a standard MOS transistor can be converted into a nonvolatile memory transistor that can be switched between normally on and normally off. Switching speed, retention, endurance, and radiation tolerance data are presented showing that this non-volatile memory technology can be competitive with existing Si-based non-volatile memory technologies such as the floating gate technologies (e.g. Flash memory)

Nature of the green luminescent center in zinc oxide

EPR, optical absorption, and photoluminescence spectroscopies are used to characterize a wide range of different ZnO phosphor powders. A good correlation is generally observed between the 510-nm green emission intensity and the density of paramagnetic isolated oxygen vacancies. Both quantities are found to peak at a free-carrier density of about 1.4x10{sup 18}cm{sup -3}. The green emission intensity can be strongly influenced by free-carrier depletion at the particle surface, especially for small particles and/or low doping. The data suggest that the green PL in ZnO phosphors is due to recombination of electrons in singly occupied oxygen vacancies with photoexcited holes in the valence band

Broadband luminescence in defect-engineered electrochemically produced porous Si/ZnO nanostructures

The fabrication, by an all electrochemical process, of porous Si/ZnO nanostructures with engineered structural defects, leading to strong and broadband deep level emission from ZnO, is presented. Such nanostructures are fabricated by a combination of metal-assisted chemical etching of Si and direct current electrodeposition of ZnO. It makes the whole fabrication process low-cost, compatible with Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor technology, scalable and easily industrialised. The photoluminescence spectra of the porous Si/ZnO nanostructures reveal a correlation between the lineshape, as well as the strength of the emission, with the morphology of the underlying porous Si, that control the induced defects in the ZnO. Appropriate fabrication conditions of the porous Si lead to exceptionally bright Gaussian-type emission that covers almost the entire visible spectrum, indicating that porous Si/ZnO nanostructures could be a cornerstone material towards white-light-emitting devices

Nonvolatile Field Effect Transistors Based on Protons and Si/SiO{Sub 2}Si Structures

Recently, the authors have demonstrated that annealing Si/SiO{sub 2}/Si structures in a hydrogen containing ambient introduces mobile H{sup +} ions into the buried SiO{sub 2} layer. Changes in the H{sup +} spatial distribution within the SiO{sub 2} layer were electrically monitored by current-voltage (I-V) measurements. The ability to directly probe reversible protonic motion in Si/SiO{sub 2}/Si structures makes this an exemplar system to explore the physics and chemistry of hydrogen in the technologically relevant Si/SiO{sub 2} structure. In this work, they illustrate that this effect can be used as the basis for a programmable nonvolatile field effect transistor (NVFET) memory that may compete with other Si-based memory devices. The power of this novel device is its simplicity; it is based upon standard Si/SiO{sub 2}/Si technology and forming gas annealing, a common treatment used in integrated circuit processing. They also briefly discuss the effects of radiation on its retention properties

Facile Synthesis of ZnO Nanorods by Microwave Irradiation of Zinc–Hydrazine Hydrate Complex

ZnO nanorods have been successfully synthesized by a simple microwave-assisted solution phase approach. Hydrazine hydrate has been used as a mineralizer instead of sodium hydroxide. XRD and FESEM have been used to characterize the product. The FESEM images show that the diameter of the nanorods fall in the range of about 25–75 nm and length in the range of 500–1,500 nm with an aspect ratio of about 20–50. UV–VIS and photoluminescence spectra of the nanorods in solution have been taken to study their optical properties. A mechanism for microwave synthesis of the ZnO nanorods using hydrazine hydrate precursor has also been proposed