The Pitfalls of Using a Child Support Schedule Based on Outdated Data

A strong rationale for updating child support guidelines arises from changes over time in the measurement of expenditures on children, as well as changes in the empirical relationship between expenditures on children and the income of parents. Such changes affect the accuracy of the numerics upon which states' child support guidelines are based. This study evaluates an alternative child support guideline that was proposed for Virginia and draws lessons for other states that similarly base their guidelines on older survey data. Regression results show that over time, the child expenditure and household income relationship has changed considerably. Furthermore, the largest increases in expenditures attributable to children have occurred for lower- and middle-income households

Investigation of Salicylic Acid-induced Change on Flavonoids Production Under Cadmium Toxicity in Buckwheat (Fagopyrum Esculentum Moench) Plants

Salicylic acid (SA) is an imperative endogenous plant hormone. It is considered as one of the most important signaling molecule, involved in both abiotic and biotic stress tolerance. Application of optimal concentrations (0,05 mM) of SA enhances plants tolerance to cadmium stress by modulating levels of several metabolites, including components of antioxidative defense, osmolytes, secondary metabolites, and metal-chelating compounds. We showed that when SA and Cd were applied simultaneously, the damage was less pronounced than without SA. SA treatment itself also caused the oxidative stress, but decreased flavonoids content, regulated phenolic synthesis and lignin formation. Thus, the main purpose was to investigate how SA treatment, used prior the Cd stress, prevented the damaging heavy metal effects in buckwheat plants. And show that regulation of flavonoids and lignin formation are an important indicator of stability and stress resistance. The obtained data will expand the knowledge about the role of phenolic compounds and the action of salicylate under the cadmium chloride conditions. Also data with this type of buckwheat – Fagopyrum esculentum Moench, Rubra variety under the action of cadmium chloride and salicylic acid not found

RANCANG BANGUN ANTENA MIKROSTRIP PATCH TRIANGULAR METODE PARASITIC UNTUK APLIKASI LTE DI FREKUENSI 2,3 GHZ

4G LTE merupakan teknologi telekomunikasi yang terbaru dan memiliki efisiensi serta kecepatan akses data yang tinggi. Untuk menunjang teknologi tanpa kabel dibutuhkan suatu antena yang juga memiliki performansi yang maksimum yang bisa diaplikasikan pada 4G LTE. Salah satu antena yang cocok adalah antena mikrostrip karena memiliki dimensi yang kecil dan ringan serta mudah dipabrikasi. Pada tugas akhir ini dirancang suatu antena mikrostrip patch triangular untuk aplikasi LTE yang bekerja pada frekuensi 2,3 GHz dengan menggunakan metode parasitic dengan tujuan memperbesar bandwidth dan teknik saluran pencatu tidak langsung atau microstrip feed line. Dari hasil simulasi didapatkan kenaikan bandwidth yang signifikan yaitu sebesar 21,1% dari 219 MHz menjadi 265 MHz. Sedangkan dari hasil pengukuran didapatkan hasil bandwidth sebesar 245 MHz (2185 MHz - 2430 MHz). Nilai return loss sebesar -16,412 dB dan nilai VSWR sebesar 1,356. Pola radiasi yang didapatkan memiliki daya pancaran ke segala arah atau omnidirectional. Gain yang dihasilkan dari pengukuran sebesar 5,43 dBi.Kata kunci – Bandwidth, Gain, LTE, microstrip, parasitic, pola radiasi, return loss, VSW

ZnO nanorod arrays fabrication via chemical bath deposition: Ligand concentration effect study

A new ligand, N, N, N', N'-tetramethylethylenediamine, has been used to grow ZnO nanorods on silicon substrates via a two steps approach. A preliminary seeding on silicon substrates has been combined with chemical bath deposition using a Zinc acetate - N, N, N', N'-tetramethylethylenediamine aqueous solution. The used diamino ligand has been selected as Zn(2+) complexing agent and the related hydrolysis generates the reacting ions (Zn(2-) and OH(-)) responsible for the ZnO growth. The seed layer has been annealed at low temperature (<200 degrees C) and the ZnO nanorods have been grown on this ZnO amorphous layer. There is experimental evidence that the ligand concentration (ranging from 5 to 50 mM) strongly affects the alignment of ZnO nanorods on the substrate, their lateral dimension and the related surface density. Length and diameter of ZnO nanorods increase upon increasing the ligand concentration, while the nanorod density decreases. Even more important, it has been demonstrated, as proof of concept, that chemical bath deposition can be usefully combined with colloidal lithography for selective ZnO nanorod deposition Thus, by patterning the ZnO seeded substrate with polystyrene microsphere colloidal lithography, regular Si hole arrays, spatially defined by hexagonal ZnO nanorods, have been successfully obtained. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Ultrathin and nanostructured ZnO-based films for fluorescence biosensing applications

The fluorescence-based sensing capability of ultrathin ZnO-SiO(2) nanoplatforms, deposited by an integrated approach of colloidal lithography and metal organic chemical vapor deposition, has been investigated upon adsorption of fluorescein-labeled albumin, used as model analyte biomolecule. The protein immobilization process after spontaneous adsorption/desorption significantly enhances the green emission of the different ZnO-based films, as evidenced by scanning confocal microscopy, corresponding to a comparable protein coverage detected by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Moreover, experiments of fluorescence recovery after photobleaching evidence that the protein lateral diffusion at the biointerface is affected by the chemical and/or topographical patterning of hybrid ZnO-SiO(2) surfaces. The used approach is very promising for biomolecular detection applications of these ZnO-SiO(2) nanoplatforms, by simple sizing of the 2D vs. 3D patterning design, which in turn is accomplished by the fine tuning of the integrated colloidal lithography-chemical vapor deposition processes. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Integration of Metal Organic Chemical Vapour Deposition and Wet Chemical Techniques to Obtain Highly Ordered Porous ZnO Nanoplatforms

Large-area, highly ordered ZnO micropores-arrays consisting of ZnO nanotubes delimited by ZnO nanorods have been successfully fabricated and tested for protein sensing applications. ZnO seed layers have been deposited by Metal Organic Chemical Vapour Deposition and readily patterned by Colloidal Lithography to attain ZnO nanorods growth at selective sites by Chemical Bath Deposition. The used synthetic approach has been proven effective for the easy assembly of ZnO nanoplatforms into high-density arrays. Both patterned and unpatterned ZnO nanorods have been morphologically and compositionally characterised and, thus, tested for model studies of protein mobility at the interface. The patterned layers, having a higher contribution of surface polar moieties than the corresponding unpatterned surfaces, exhibit a reduced lateral diffusion of the adsorbed protein. This evidence is related to the intrinsic porous nature of the ZnO hemispherical arrays characterised by a nanotube-nanorod hybrid networks. The present study gives a great impetus to the fabrication of tunable ZnO nanoplatforms having multiple morphologies and exceptionally high surface areas suitable for application in sensing devices

Effects of Metal-Organic Chemical Vapour Deposition grown seed layer on the fabrication of well aligned ZnO nanorods by Chemical Bath Deposition

Well aligned, long and uniform ZnO nanorods have been reproducibly fabricated adopting a two-steps Metal-Organic Chemical Vapour Deposition (MOCVD) and Chemical Bath Deposition (CBD) fabrication approaches. Thin (<100 nm) ZnO buffer layers have been seeded on silicon substrates by MOCVD and ZnO layers have been subsequently grown, in form of well textured nanorods, using CBD. It has been found that the structure and thickness of the seed layer strongly influence the final morphology and the crystal texturing of ZnO nanorods as well as the CBD growth rate. There is, in addition, a strong correlation between morphologies of CBD grown ZnO nanorods and those of the seed layer underneath. Thus, nanorods deposited over low temperature MOCVD buffer layers are less homogeneous in lateral dimensions and poorly vertically oriented. On the contrary, higher temperature nano-dimensional ZnO seeds favour the CBD growth of almost mono-dimensional homologue nanorods, with an adequate control of the lateral transport of matter. The nanorod aspect ratio values decrease upon increasing the deposition temperatures of the seed layers. Moreover, the nanorods length can be tailored either by adjusting the CBD growth time or by changing concentration of the N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine ligand used in the CBD process. In particular, at high concentrations, the CBD process is faster with a greater global aspect ratio in agreement with a preferential one-dimensional growth of the ZnO nanostructures. Finally, these ZnO nanorod arrays possess good optical quality in accordance to the photoluminescence properties