Current requirements of nonvolatile memory (NVM) are the high density cells, low-power consumption, high-speed operation and good reliability for the scaling down devices. However, all of the charges stored in the floating gate will leak into the substrate if the tunnel oxide has a leakage path in the conventional NVM during endurance test. Therefore, the tunnel oxide thickness is difficult to scale down in terms of charge retention and endurance characteristics. The nonvolatile nanocrystal memories are one of promising candidates to substitute for conventional floating gate memory, because the discrete storage nodes as the charge storage media have been effectively improve data retention under endurance test for the scaling down device. Many methods have been developed recently for the formation of nanocrystal. Generally, most methods need thermal treatment with high temperature and long duration. This procedure will influence thermal budget and throughput in current manufacture technology of semiconductor industry. In this thesis, we used the three kind of high-k dielectric structure as the tunnel oxide (Al2O3, HfO2/Al2O3/HfO2, Al2O3/HfO2/Al2O3) to overcome the limitation of conventional NVMs during the scaling down process. First, we used Al2O3 as tunnel oxide. It observed that device of Al2O3 as tunnel oxide reduce equivalent thickness without lost retention too much. Then, we used HfO2/Al2O3/HfO2 as tunnel oxide. It observed the device of HfO2/Al2O3/HfO2 as tunnel oxide which had bigger window than the device used thermal oxide as tunnel oxide. Moreover it had better retention characteristics than the device used thermal oxide as tunnel oxide with a small charge lose rate. And it reduced equivalent thickness of SiO2.Final, we used Al2O3/HfO2/Al2O3 as tunnel oxide. It observed the device of Al2O3/HfO2/Al2O3 as tunnel oxide which had better retention characteristics than the device used HfO2/Al2O3/HfO2 as tunnel oxide without decrease the electron and hole injection. And we reduce equivalent thickness of SiO2 .

This diploma thesis is based on the fifth round of the Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI). This study is lead by World Health Organisation and on this study cooperate European countries including the Czech republic. In the Czech republic the study lead by Institute of Endocrinology in collaboration with practical paediatricians since the year 2008. The fifth round of this study took place in the Czech republic in 2019. We collected anthropometric data and characteristic of family and school enviroment from 2289 children 6,5-7,99 years old. Prevalence of underweight according to cut offs of WHO was 2,88% (2,74-3,02), according to National Anthropological Survey (NAS) was 2,27% (1,84- 2,7) and according to International Obesity Task Force was 1,35% (1,13-1,57). Prevalence of underweight was compared with prevalence of underweight in the last rounds of this study and with prevalence of overweight and obesity. Decrease of prevalence of underweight (WHO) in comparsion with last round of COSI study (2016) was significant in boys. We found non- significant increase in underweight prevalence in girls. A mild non-significant decrease of underweight in all children.. Prevalence of overweight and obesity according to cut offs of WHO was 22,24% (22,16-22,32), according to NAS was 18,92%...

La récupération de chaleur perdue lors des procédés industriels grâce à la thermoélectricité peut contribuer au développement des économies d'énergie. Pour une plus large diffusion des convertisseurs thermoélectriques, le facteur de mérite ZT n'est pas le seul critère à prendre en compte ; le coût et l'éco-compatibilité des éléments utilisés, la facilité de synthèse et de mise en forme sont des aspects également importants. Deux familles de matériaux, encore peu présentes dans la littérature, répondent assez bien à toutes ces exigences : les siliciures et les composites. Nous nous sommes intéressés au siliciure de cobalt CoSi, ainsi que aux alliages et aux composites obtenus à partir de cette phase.Nous avons tout d'abord étudié la nanostructuration. La fusion à arc suivie d'un broyage mécanique ou la mécanosynthèse ont permis de synthétiser des cristallites de CoSi avec une taille de 13 nm. Ces poudres présentent une bonne stabilité chimique et un grossissement de grain limité jusqu'à 400 °C. Pour des températures plus élevées, une croissance cristalline importante s'accompagne d'une perte de silicium et de la formation de Co2Si. La nanostructuration diminue la conductivité thermique de CoSi de 35% par rapport au matériau massif. Le facteur de mérite ZT=0,15 obtenu à une température T=300 °C est supérieur à celui de CoSi synthétisé par four à arc mais légèrement inférieures à celui d'un monocristal.Différents éléments ont été envisagés pour former des alliages avec CoSi sur la base de considérations pratiques ainsi que sur les résultats de calculs ab initio. Certains se sont montrés insolubles dans CoSi (Ca, Zr, Nb, Mo, Sn, Ta, W et Pb), d'autres très peu solubles (Ti, V ou Cu). Des solutions solides de composition Co0,85Cr0,15Si, Co0,90Mn0,10Si et CoSi0,92Zn0,08 ont aussi été synthétisées, mais le facteur de puissance des deux premières est inférieure à celui de CoSi.Nous avons comparé trois polymères intrinsèquement conducteurs et commercialement disponibles : la polyaniline (PANI), le polypyrrole (PPy) et le polyéthylène(3,4dioxythiophéne) dopé avec le polystyrène sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS). Pour former des composites contenants l'alliage Co0.85Fe0.15Si, le PPy s'est avéré être le polymère le plus adapté. Le meilleur facteur de puissance PF=2,5 μW/m⋅K2 a été obtenu avec une fraction volumique de polymère ϕ=10%, toutefois la tenue mécanique pour cette composition est limitée. Les performances de ces composites sont toujours inférieures à celles de la phase la plus performante ; l'intérêt de ces matériaux réside donc surtout dans leur grande facilité de mise en forme. / Wasted heat recovery through thermoelectricity can contribute to a more sustainable energetic model. For a large-scale application of thermoelectric devices, their efficiency is not the only criterion to consider; materials should be easy to synthesize and made of abundant, cheap and environmental friendly elements. Silicides and composites are little known thermoelectric materials that meet all these requirements. We studied the cobalt silicide CoSi and some alloys and composites obtained using this phase.Firstly we investigate whether nanostructuration allows increasing the thermoelectric properties of CoSi. CoSi crystallites with a size of 13 nm were synthesized by arc melting followed by mechanical milling or by mechanical alloying. These powders showed good chemical stability and a limited grain growth up to 400 °C. At higher temperatures grain coarsening is accompanied by a loss of silicon and the formation of Co2Si. The thermal conductivity of CoSi was reduced by 35% by nanostructuring. A ZT=0.15 was obtained at T=300 °C, which is higher than that of CoSi synthesized by arc melting but slightly lower than that of CoSi single crystals.Various elements were considered in order to form a solid solution with CoSi, taking into account common sense considerations and the results of ab initio calculations. We observed that Ca, Zr, Nb, Mo, Sn, Ta, W and Pb are not soluble while Ti, V and Cu have a limited solubility. The phases Co0.85Cr0.15Si, Co0.90Mn0.10Si and CoSi0.92Zn0.08 were also synthesized but the first two have a lower power factor than CoSi.We compared three commercially available intrinsically conducting polymers: polyaniline (PANI), polypyrrole (PPy) and polyethylene (3,4dioxythiophene) doped with polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT: PSS). PPy demonstrated to be the best polymer to form composites containing Co0.85Fe0.15Si. The highest power factor, PF=2.5 μW/m.K2, is obtained for a volume fraction of polymer ϕ=10%, nonetheless this composition induces poor mechanical strength. The thermoelectric performances we measured were always inferior to the ones of inorganic phase, thus the main advantage of these composites is their ease of shaping.

A metal-to-insulating transition has been observed in iron, iron oxide, iron silicide and cobalt silicide thin films when deposited on Si substrate with a native SiOx layer. This transition produced a change in resistance of 5 orders of magnitude at a temperature of 250 K. To the best of the author's knowledge, this effect has not been reported in the literature prior to this study. This work reports a systematic experimental investigation carried out to understand the fundamental mechanism involved in the manifestation of this metal-to-insulator transition. The films were deposited using the pulsed laser deposition technique (PLD) in a base vacuum of the order of 10-6 torr at 400o C and room temperature. Several experiments were systematically conducted to understand the nature of the transition and the current path. Deposition of films on different substrates and the deposition of different transition metal films were made to narrow down the physical origin of the transition in the sample. Temperature-dependent resistance measurements not only exhibited a transition but also suggested more than one conduction mechanism. This is confirmed by the data collected for the IV curves. Current and voltage have a linear relation at temperatures greater than the transition temperature, and a non-linear relation at lower temperatures. Magnetoresistance (MR) measurements revealed a quadratic dependence of the resistance on the applied magnetic field. This is an indication that the MR observed is due to Lorentz forces acting on the charge carriers. Transmission electron microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy have identified different layers that are believed to be responsible for the observed transition.

abstract: W.A. Mozart was a masterful creator of music and drama as well as a keen observer of human relationships. Librettists were enamored of his ability to bring their words to life with his music. His truthful portrayal of human relationships, particularly involving women, was highly influenced by his own life experiences. Through these relationships he learned to create characters and music that clearly depict female sibling relationships in the eighteenth century. A review of educational opportunities for women during the eighteenth century, Mozart's personal relationships, as well as selected roles in his operas will help to explain Mozart's portrayal of the eighteenth-century female sibling stereotypes. While Mozart's self-centeredness is well documented in biographies by Cliff Eisen and Ruth Halliwell, and the argument can be made that he surrounded himself with females who fulfilled his needs, he was often drawn to operas in which he could advocate musically for a female character's liberation from the overbearing influence of powerful men. Although Mozart's "musically empowered" women appear in nearly every opera, for the purpose of this paper, I will focus on the characters of Così fan tutte's Fiordiligi and Dorabella, and Le Nozze di Figaro's Countess. First, however, a closer analysis of Mozart's early life and his relationships with his sister and mother is necessary. The ways Mozart set characters created by DaPonte and Beaumarchais cannot be separated from the ways he was taught to appreciate females in his family of origin. Social structure during the eighteenth century dictated a woman's education, responsibility to her family, and therefore, played a fundamental role in defining her life. This situation often created expectations within the birth order that had an impact on sibling relationships as well as individual personalities. Many social and familial influences are represented through the operas of Mozart. Così fan tutte (January 26, 1790) and Le Nozze di Figaro (May 1, 1786) both contain a central female sibling relationship that reflects aspects of Mozart's relationships with women throughout his life. / Dissertation/Thesis / D.M.A. Performance 2010

This critical review of four novels by Celia Brayfield, Getting Home, Mister Fabulous And Friends, Heartswap and Wild Weekend, outlines the themes that give the works defining coherence, which are a feminist evaluation of gender roles and an exploration of the relationship between space or place in millennial Britain. The author contextualises her novels in considering literary representations of the suburb in literature and use of the device of gender reversal in fiction. The review demonstrates that the novels make a significant and coherent contribution to knowledge as resonant and well-received creative works and provides an assessment of their international and national impact. In discussing the inspiration and influences of her work, her choices in characterisation, narrative and dramatised argument, and in particular her decision to create responses to two classic texts using the device of gender reversal, the author justifies the overarching approach and methodologies used for these novels.

In the present health care environment, there is an increased demand for audiologists to measure the outcomes of hearing aid intervention. In addition to the more traditional objective outcome measures, many subjective outcome measures have been developed in the last 20 years. Two such subjective outcome measures are the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB) and the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (HHIE). These instruments consist of a series of pre-selected questions that may or may not be applicable to an individual. An alternative to the pre-selected question format is an open format design that allows the person with a hearing loss to designate areas of concern to them. One subjective outcome measure that uses this format is the Client Oriented Scale of Improvement (COSI) developed by Dillon and his colleagues in Australia. The COSI has been validated and may be useful for oversight with multi-clinician or for multi-clinic systems. The purpose of this study was to address tthe potential of the COSI for such oversight. Specifically, the study examined the inter-observer agreement of the classification of individually identified situations into general categories. The study also re-examined the clinical utility of the COSI as an outcome measure in individual hearing aid fittings. The results demonstrated very good inter-observer agreement for the classification of individually identified situations. In addition, the study supported the usefulness as a clinical outcome measure that had been found by Dillon and his colleagues in Australia. These results indicate that the COSI has potential for oversight of the outcomes of hearing aid intervention in hearing aid delivery organizations.

The COmpton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) is a space telescope that aims to study the soft gamma regime (0.2-5 MeV), capable of performing spectroscopy, imaging and polarimetry of cosmic gamma sources. COSI will use an active shield made of Bismuth Germanium Oxide (BGO), a known scintillator material, in order to reduce the instrumental background produced by primary and secondary particles. When a cosmic ray particle or gamma interacts with the active shield, they will produce scintillation photons. Thanks to the optical coupling of photomultipliers tubes (PMT) to the BGO walls, it is possible to detect these scintillation photons and remove the background events from the analysis with the Compton telescope. IRAP (Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology) is the organization responsible of providing the photodetector (PMT with its electronics and mechanics) design to the COSI mission. The main objective of my internship is to study the performance of the photodetector of the active shield, focusing on the development of simulations with Geant4. The first study investigates the propagation of optical photons inside a PMT, comparing an analytical method versus a Geant4 simulation. Geant4 perfectly simulates the transmission and reflection of photons. However, if some of the photons are absorbed by the materials, Geant4 starts to slightly differ. This happens because the absorption is computed with different physic processes in both models. The second study is focused on obtaining measurements from the PMTs at the laboratory. The pulse amplitude at the preamplifier level is analysed, as well as the transmission of the Si pad. The third and fourth studies are focused on the simulation, with Geant4, of the performance of a PMT optically coupled to two different scintillator materials, CsI(Tl) and BGO, respectively. The correct set-up of a simulation is always critical, especially for a space mission like COSI. Both studies aim to find the correct set-up in order to get the most precise simulation. The results are great, showing a really good correlation between the simulation and the real data. During the fifth study, I updated the photodetector engineering model, called DACS (Detector for the AntiCoincidence System), taking into consideration the new electronic board designs and the previous engineering models. The results obtained in this thesis help to understand the performance of the photodetectors that will be used on the COSI telescope, as well as to show the benefits of using a toolkit like Geant4 in projects with propagation of scintillation photons.

This thesis is dealing with the usage of solar energy for cooling and air-conditioning. Notification of the quantity of solar power which incidents to the Earth, types of solar power collector and discribes systems which are applicable for cooling and air-conditioning. Next part deal with calculation and proposal of combined system for warming-up domestic hot water, heating a bit more and cooling. In the last part I solve the capital expenditure and system´s economic return.

Obesity is considered to be one of the diseases related to the change in the lifestyle, leading to increased incidence of myocardial infarction, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension and other diseases. Due to the progressively increasing prevalence of obesity in adulthood, prevention of obesity has to start in childhood and adolescent, in which also increase in prevalence of obesity was found. Actual prevalence of overweight and obesity was tested in this thesis by different standards (5. NAS, WHO, IOTF, CDC) in Czech children population in age of 6.5 - 7.5 years in 2013. Its trend since 1951 was evaluated. Since 2008 maintaining of the values in all categories at the constant level was found. The role of risk factors assessed by personal, family and school questionnaires in overweight prevalence was tested. The most important factors were diet, exercise and family factors. Increased weight/height ratio (WHtR) marker of adipose tissue was found in the category of normal weight children also and it shows the link with above-mentioned risk factors of diet, exercise and family prediction. Key words Obesity, Overweight, Prevalence, Childhood, BMI, 5. NAS, WHO, IOTF, CDC, COSI, WHtR, Waist circumference, Risk factors