Energetic particles from cosmic ray or terrestrial sources can strike sensitive areas of CMOS devices and cause soft errors. Understanding the effects of such interactions is crucial as the device technology advances, and chip reliability has become more important than ever. Particle accelerator testing has been the standard method to characterize the sensitivity of chips to single event upsets (SEUs). However, because of their costs and availability limitations, other techniques have been explored. Pulsed laser has been a successful tool for characterization of SEU behavior, but to this day, laser has not been recognized as a comparable method to beam testing. In this thesis, I propose a methodology of correlating laser soft error rate (SER) to particle beam gathered data. Additionally, results are presented showing a temperature dependence of SER and the "neighbor effect" phenomenon where due to the close proximity of devices a "weakening effect" in the ON state can be observed.

Legislative reforms aimed at slowing growth of US healthcare costs are focused on achieving greater value, defined specifically as health outcomes achieved per dollar spent. To increase value while payments are diminishing and tied to individual outcomes, healthcare must improve at predicting risks and outcomes. One way to improve predictions is through better modeling methods. Current models are predominantly based on logistic regression (LR). This project applied Reconstructability Analysis (RA) to data on hip and knee replacement surgery, and considered whether RA could create useful models of outcomes, and whether these models could produce predictions complimentary to or even stronger than LR models. RA is a data mining method that searches for relations in data, especially non-linear and higher ordinality relations, by decomposing the frequency distribution of the data into projections, several of which taken together define a model, which is then assessed for statistical significance. The predictive power of the model is expressed as the percent reduction of uncertainty (Shannon entropy) of the dependent variable (the DV) gained by knowing the values of the predictive independent variables (the IVs). Results showed that LR and RA gave the same results for equivalent models, and showed that exploratory RA provided better models than LR. Sixteen RA predictive models were then generated across the four DVs: complications, skilled nursing discharge, readmissions, and total cost. While the first three DVs are nominal, RA generated continuous predictions for cost by calculating expected values. Models included novel comorbidity variables and non-hypothesized interaction terms, and often resulted in substantial reductions in uncertainty. Predictive variables consisted of both delivery system variables and binary patient comorbidity variables. Complications were predicted by the total number of patient comorbidities. Skilled nursing discharges were predicted both by patient-related factors and delivery system variables (location, surgeon volume), suggesting practice patterns influence utilization of skilled nursing facilities. Readmissions were not well predicted, suggesting the data used in this project lacks the right variables or that readmissions are simply unpredictable. Delivery system variables (surgeon, location, and surgeon volume) were found to be the predominant predictors of total cost. Risk ratios were generated as an additional measure of effect size. These risk ratios were used to classify the IV states of the models as indicating higher or lower risk of adverse outcomes. Some IV states showed nearly 25% of patients at increased risk, while other IV states showed over 75% of patients at decreased risk. In real time, such risk predictions could support clinical decision making and custom-tailored utilization of services. Future research might address the limitations of this project's data and employ additional RA techniques and training-test splits. Implementation of predictive models is also discussed, with considerations for data supply lines, maintenance of models, organizational buy-in, and the acceptance of model output by clinical teams for use in real-time clinical practice. If outcomes and risk are adequately predicted, areas for potential improvement become clearer, and focused changes can be made to drive improvements in patient care. Better predictions, such as those resulting from the RA methodology, can thus support improvement in value--better outcomes at a lower cost. As reimbursement increasingly evolves into value-based programs, understanding the outcomes achieved, and customizing patient care to reduce unnecessary costs while improving outcomes, will be an active area for clinicians, healthcare administrators, researchers, and data scientists for many years to come.

Ionizing radiation (IR), along with being an important diagnostic and treatment modality, is a potent tumor-causing agent, and the risk of secondary radiation treatment-related cancers is a growing clinical problem. Now some studies propose to link secondary radiation-induced cancers to an enigmatic phenomenon of bystander effects, whereby the exposed cells send signal damage and distress to their naïve neighbors and result in genome destabilization and carcinogenesis. Yet, no data existed on the bystander effects in an organ other than an exposed one. With this in mind, we focused on the analysis of existence and mechanisms of radiation-induced bystander effects in vivo. We have found that bystander effects occur in vivo in distant skin and spleen following half-body or cranial irradiation. These bystander effects resulted in elevated DNA damage, profound dysregulation of epigenetic machinery, and pronounced alterations in apoptosis, proliferation and gene expression. Bystander effects also exhibited persistency and sex specificity. The results obtained while using the animal model systems can potentially be extrapolated to different animals and humans. / xiii, 208 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm.

Thesis (MScEng)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: After successful use of a DSP processor onboard the SUNSAT satellite, the need arose for a faster floating-point processor. A list of possible processors was generated from various selection criteria. Two suitable DSP processors were chosen, and because no radiation information was available for one of them, the decision was made to perform radiation tests on it. The procedures used to test the processor are described in detail so the same methods can be used for future radiation tests. An error detection and correction circuit was implemented to check and correct upsets in the on-chip memory of the DSP processor. This ensures that the processor code and data stays intact. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Na suksesvolle gebruik van 'n DSP verwerker aanboord die SUNSAT satelliet het die behoefte ontstaan vir 'n vinniger wissel-punt verwerker. 'n Lys van moontlike verwerkers is opgestel met die hulp van verskeie seleksie kriteria. Twee geskikte DSP verwerkers is gekies, en omdat geen radiasie informasie vir die een beskikbaar was nie, is besluit om radiasie toetse op hom te doen. Die prosedures gebruik om die verwerker te toets word deeglik beskryf sodat dieselfde metodes in die toekom gebruik kan word. 'n Fout deteksie en korreksie baan is geimplementeer om foute in die aanboord geheue van die DSP verwerker op te spoor en te korrigeer. Dit verseker dat die verwerker se kode en data intak bly.

A variation of the excite-and-probe technique is used to measure the picosecond evolution of laser-induced transient gratings that are produced in germanium by the direct absorption of 40 psec optical pulses at 1.06-μm. Grating lifetimes are determined for free carrier densities between 10¹⁸ cm⁻³ and 10²¹ cm⁻³ . For carrier densities less than 10¹⁹ cm⁻³ , a linear diffusion-recombination model for the grating provides a good fit to the experimental data and allows the extraction of the diffusion coefficient and an estimation of the linear recombination lifetime. Above carrier densities of approximately 10²⁰ cm⁻³ , the density dependence of the diffusion coefficient and nonlinear recombination processes must be considered. Numerical solutions to the resulting nonlinear partial differential equation are obtained that allow extraction of information concerning the high density diffusion coefficient and the nonlinear recombination rates.

Thesis (MTech (Biomedical Technology))--Cape Technikon, Cape Town, 2004 / The need for radiobiological research was bom from the discovery that high doses of radiation could cause cancer and other health effects. However, recent developments in molecular biology uncovered the effects of low doses of radiation on different biological systems and as a result new techniques have been developed to measure these effects. The aim of this study was thus to validate biomarkers of initial DNA strand breaks, micronucleus formation, and the different pt ;ases of apoptosis as biological indicators of low-dose radiation damage. Furthermore, the difference in response of blood cells to different qualities and doses of radiation was investigated by irradiating cells with low- and high-LET radiation simultaneously. Blood from one donor was irradiated with doses between 0 and 4 Gy gamma- and neutron radiation. The alkaline single-cell gel electrophoresis (comet) assay was performed on different cell preparations directly after irradiation for the detection of initial DNA strand breaks. Radiation-induced cytogenetic damage was investigated using the cytokinesis-blocked micronucleus assay while different features of apoptosis were investigated by measuring caspase activation, enzymatic DNA fragmentation, and cellular morphology. The comet assay was sensitive enough to detect DNA strand breaks above 0.25 Gy and showed that the Iymphocyte isolation process induced some endogenous damage in cells, detected by the formation of highly damaged cells and hedgehogs in isolated cell preparations only.

Orientador: Rosana Maria Caram / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-19T03:21:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Roriz_VictorFigueiredo_D.pdf: 10020580 bytes, checksum: b85781c508b837b2a89be30231390421 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: Saliências e reentrâncias existentes nas superfícies típicas das edificações, tanto na escala da rugosidade quanto das ondulações (de uma telha, por exemplo), constituem obstáculos que podem diferenciar o comportamento das mesmas em relação aos fluxos por radiação, se comparadas a superfícies perfeitamente lisas e planas. Absortividades e emissividades são propriedades dos materiais, enquanto absortâncias e emitâncias são características das superfícies, sendo influenciadas não apenas pelo material de que são constituídas, mas também por sua geometria. Esta pesquisa objetivou verificar tais influências, por meio de desenvolvimentos teóricos, e por procedimentos experimentais. Foi desenvolvido um modelo teórico de cálculo para o chamado "efeito cavidade", que permite estimar as absortâncias e emitâncias efetivas de uma superfície. As estimativas resultantes foram comparadas às obtidas em procedimentos clássicos para cálculo deste mesmo efeito. Foram realizados ensaios de campo, a céu aberto e sob condições climáticas reais, possibilitando uma análise do fenômeno na presença de outros fluxos de calor e sob a influência das diversas variáveis do clima. Para complementar os dados, experimentos foram realizados sob condições controladas, possibilitando aferir o modelo teórico. A fim de quantificar as implicações dos efeitos acima mencionados, simulações foram feitas no software EnergyPlus, considerando uma edificação de geometria simples, submetida ao clima da cidade de Brasília, com diferentes propriedades radiantes para as telhas. Adotando-se absortâncias e emitâncias efetivas, as simulações revelaram diferenças acima de 2.5oC nas temperaturas internas do ar, em relação às obtidas supondo-se que a cobertura fosse lisa e plana. No caso de uso de condicionadores de ar, esta diferença pode provocar uma variação de até 30% nas estimativas de consumo de energia elétrica. A pesquisa demonstrou que, para as superfícies normalmente encontradas nas edificações, o modelo proposto é adequado e pode contribuir para o aperfeiçoamento dos estudos de comportamento térmico e energético dos edifícios / Abstract: On surfaces perfectly flat and smooth, there are no obstacles to the radiant flow. However, typical surfaces of buildings have bumps and hollows that can significantly change the behaviour of them. The absorptivity and emissivity are properties of materials, while the emittance and absorptance are surface characteristics, being influenced not only by the material they are made, but also by its geometry and surface feature. This research aimed to verify such influences by means of theoretical and experimental procedures. A theoretical model for calculating the so-called "cavity effect" was developed, which allows to estimate the effective absorptance and Emittance of a surface. The resulting estimates were compared with those obtained in classical procedures for calculating the same effect. Field tests were conducted under actual weather conditions, allowing an analysis of the phenomenon in the presence of other heat fluxes and under the influence of different climate variables. To complement the data, experiments were performed under controlled conditions, allowing to test the theoretical model. In order to quantify the implications of the effects mentioned above, simulations were made with the software EnergyPlus considering a simple geometry building, submitted to the climate of the city of Brasilia, with different radiant properties of the roofs Adopting effective absorptances and emittance, simulation results show differences of up to 2.5 ° C in the internal air temperature, compared to those obtained ignoring the influences that the ripples of the tiles have on radiant flows. Considering the use of air conditioners, this could represent up to 30% variation in the energy consumption estimative. Research has shown that for surfaces typically found in buildings, the proposed model is adequate and may contribute to the improvement of thermal and behavioral studies of buildings / Doutorado / Arquitetura e Construção / Doutor em Engenharia Civil

Orientador: Leila Peres / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Química / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-21T10:58:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Oliveira_Jenerde_M.pdf: 3164863 bytes, checksum: 8449d73e4bcbb869e01f38cb81b7f962 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Resumo: Filmes poliméricos são amplamente utilizados no setor alimentício e médico hospitalar e as principais aplicações são como embalagens, substratos para fitas e curativos. A escolha do melhor material está intrinsecamente ligada às suas propriedades e também ao custo de cada polímero. Por isso é extremamente relevante a preocupação com o processo de degradação, que influencia diretamente as propriedades dos polímeros e é o resultado do ataque físico e/ou químico proporcionado pelo ambiente (temperatura, umidade, radiações ionizantes), tempo de exposição e condições de processamento e de serviço. Neste trabalho buscou-se analisar a prevenção destes processos degradativos em filmes de polipropileno bi-orientado - BOPP, polímero comercialmente atraente pela sua versatilidade, por meio do uso de aditivos antioxidantes e de absorvedores de radiação UV comerciais, estes últimos na forma de compostos orgânicos e de nanopartículas inorgânicas, aplicados no filme em massa ou em recobrimentos especialmente formulados para este fim. O uso do recobrimento teria ainda como vantagem adicional, a possibilidade de aplicação durante o processo de impressão, protegendo não só o filme como também as cores da impressão, permitindo, além disso, a partir de um filme commodity e formulações de recobrimento feitas sob medida para cada cliente, inclusive de pequeno porte, a obtenção de filmes especiais a um menor custo. Amostras de filmes preparados foram envelhecidas artificialmente e naturalmente e suas propriedades foram monitoradas em ensaios de resistência à tração (tensão na ruptura e alongamento), medida do índice de carbonila por espectroscopia de infravermelho, medida da absorção de radiação ultravioleta por meio de espectrofotometria de UV/visível e análise térmica (temperatura de transição vítrea e de fusão). O trabalho gerou resultados promissores, conclusão obtida pela análise dos ensaios mecânicos, sendo que a tensão de ruptura de um dos filmes aditivados no recobrimento, submetido ao intemperismo por 24 semanas, foi de 1,5 kg/cm versus 1 kg/cm no filme virgem (sem aditivos) submetido a 11 semanas. Houve redução na taxa de degradação medida nos ensaios de absorção de infravermelho, sendo o índice de carbonila mantido a patamares de 0,01 para filmes aditivados versus 0,7 para filmes não aditivados, quando sujeitos a degradação acelerada em equipamento QUV. Houve aumento da absorção de radiação ultravioleta em até 75% comparativamente ao filme virgem, resultado obtido pela adição de absorvedores orgânicos ou também de nanopartículas de óxido metálico / Abstract: Polymeric films are very used on products for food and hospital markets, mainly for packaging, adhesive tapes backing and dressings. The material's choose for both markets are done based on polymer properties and cost. Due this reason, it is too relevant to worry with degradation of material that influences the polymer properties. The degradation process comes from chemical and physical attack. An example is the environmental conditions, like temperature, humidity, radiation, exposure time and process/service conditions. This work looked for to evaluate and to prevent this degradation process that occur on bi-oriented polypropylene films (BOPP) through the use of different additives, like antioxidants and UV absorbers, organic compounds/inorganic nanopartículas, that can be applied on the film by different process, like inside its matrix or through varnish coatings. Samples of said films was aged on different conditions, natural or accelerated aged, and its properties was evaluated through different techniques, like tension/elongation, carbonyl index, FTIR, UV-Vis absorbance and thermo analysis (TGA, DSC). Through these techniques, it was evaluated the achieved protection grade of the film when treated by: UV absorber and Antioxidant applied by coating varnish UV absorber and antioxidant applied inside its matrix Nanoparticle of ZnO applied inside its matrix. The coating with varnishes can be easily made by a printing process. This process to protect the film was chosen in the work in order to study its influence to protect not only the film, but also the inks printed over it, allowing the use of a commodity film. This way, it is possible to get a tailor-made film, in order to achieve desired properties with a low cost process. It was possible to achieve promising results. This conclusion was made based on the tests results, like: the tensile strength analysis of films subjected to weather aging for 24 weeks shown results of 1.5 kg/cm against 1 kg/cm of virgin film aged during 11weeks; FTIR shown a reduction on the polymer degradation rate measured by infrared absorption; the carbonyl index of films with additives, when submitted to QUV or weather aging, maintained at levels of 0.01 versus 0.7 of virgin polymers; it was possible to achieve 75% of UV absorption if compared to virgin film. All the different additives and process conditions presented some advantage if compared with virgin polymer, as presented by this work / Mestrado / Ciencia e Tecnologia de Materiais / Mestre em Engenharia Química

Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Nanoscale cerium oxide (nanoceria) have shown to possess redox active property , and has been widely studied for potential use in catalysis, chemical-mechanical planarization, biomedical and solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), etc. The redox state of nanoceria can be tuned by controlling the defects within the lattice and thus its physical and chemical properties. Perfect ceria lattice has fluorite structure and the research in last decade has shown that oxide and mixed oxide systems with pyrochlore and fluorite have better structural stability under high energy radiation. However, the current literature shows a limited number of studies on the effect of high energy radiation on nanoceria. This dissertation aims at understanding the phenomena occurring on irradiation of nanoceria lattice through experiments and atomistic simulation. At first, research was conducted to show the ability to control the defects in nanoceria lattice and understand the effect in tailoring its properties. The defect state of nanoceria was controlled by lower valence state rare earth dopant europium. Extensive materials characterization was done using high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), UV-Visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy to understand the effect of dopant chemistry in modifying the chemical state of nanoceria. The defects originating in the lattice and redox state was quantified with increasing dopant concentration. The photoluminescence property of the control and doped nanoceria were evaluated with respect to its defect state. It was observed that defect plays an important role in modifying the photoluminescence property and that it can be tailored in a wide range to control the optical properties of nanoceria. iv Having seen the importance of defects in controlling the properties of nanoceria, further experiments were conducted to understand the effect of radiation in cerium oxide thin films of different crystallinity. The cerium oxide thin films were synthesized using oxygen plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy (OPA-MBE) growth. The thin films were exposed to high energy radiation over a wide range of fluence (1013 to 1017 He+ ions/cm3 ). The current literature does not report the radiation effect in nanoceria in this wide range and upto this high fluence. The chemical state of the thin film was studied using in-situ XPS for each dose of radiation. It was found that radiation induced defects within both the ceria thin films and the valence state deviated further towards non-stoichiometry with radiation. The experimental results from cerium oxide thin film irradiation were studied in the light of simulation. Classical molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulation were used for designing the model ceria nanoparticle and studying the interaction of the lattice model with radiation. Electronic and nuclear stopping at the end of the range were modeled in ceria lattice using classical molecular dynamics to simulate the effect of radiation. It was seen that displacement damage was the controlling factor in defect production in ceria lattice. The simulation results suggested that nanosized cerium oxide has structural stability under radiation and encounters radiation damage due to the mixed valence states. A portion of the study will focus on observing the lattice stability of cerium with increasing concentration of the lower valence (Ce3+) within the lattice. With this current theoretical understanding of the role of redox state and defects during irradiation, the surfaces and bulk of nanoceria can be tailored for radiation stable structural applications