Crystallographic shear planes in nanocrystalline SnO2 thin films by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy

Atomic structures of crystallographic shear planes (CSPs) in nanocrystalline thin films of semiconductor SnO₂ were investigated by high-resolution electron microscopy. The films were prepared by electron beam evaporation in high vacuum (10^–6 torr) and followed by annealing in synthetic air at 700 °C for 1–2 H. CSPs with the displacement vector of [1/2 0 1/2] were observed in the planes parallel to (¯101), (110) and (¯3¯21). Most of the CPSs were found to terminate or interact with each other within SnO₂ crystallites. Partial dislocations exist at terminal places of CSPs or along intersecting lines of CSPs. CSP steps were also observed. Structural models of these defects have been proposed. Based on analysis of experimental data, it has been suggested that the Sn/O ratio at CSPs which are not parallel to their displacement vector, at cores of partial dislocations and at CSP steps, is higher than that of the perfect structure, that is, these defects are able to provide extra free electrons with the films.     

Hospital ambulatory pediatric surgery

Since 1990, we have been conducting ambulatory pediatric surgery in an unit established solely for this purpose, supported by a team of kindergarten teachers, pediatric nurses, anesthesiologists and pediatric surgeons. This prospective investigation includes all ambulatory pediatric operations performed in our department from 1990 to 1995. In this time 3665 infants and children between the ages of 6 weeks and 18 years underwent an ambulatory operation. The ratio male to female was 4.1 to 1. The series consists of 1400 inguinal hernias, 722 inguinal testes, 191 hydroceles/funiculoceles, 75 umbilical hernias, 667 phimoses, 70 meatotomies, 59 hemangiomas, 217 endoscopies and 264 other surgical procedures. Postoperative complications defined as secondary hemorrhage, fever, obvious vomiting, urine retention and laryngospasm upon terminating anesthesia accompanied by subsequent vomiting occurred in 59 (1.6%) of all infants and children. Wound infections were seen in 0.48% (17/3517) of all patients. The recurrence rate for inguinal hernias were 0.79% and 1.12% for inguinal testes. Our experience enables us to summarize that a variety of pediatric operations can be performed today as ambulatory procedures. Nevertheless one must be prepared for the occurrence of complications and always have capacities free for inpatient care where adequate observation and treatment are available. Further improvement is necessary in quality management. In the last 20 years only a few data have been published about recurrence rates after pediatric ambulatory operations for inguinal hernias and inguinal testes. Therefore we started a prospective long- term study.     

Mitteilungen der Schweizer Informatik Gesellschaft / 3_2008

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Nonlinear filtering structure for image smoothing in mixed-noise environments

This paper introduces a new nonlinear filtering structure for filtering image data that have been corrupted by both impulsive and nonimpulsive additive noise. Like other nonlinear filters, the proposed filtering structure uses order-statistic operations to remove the effects of the impulsive noise. Unlike other filters, however, nonimpulsive noise is smoothed by using a maximum a posteriori estimation criterion. The prior model for the image is a novel Markov random-field model that models image edges so that they are accurately estimated while additive Gaussian noise is smoothed. The Markov random-field-based prior is chosen such that the filter has desirable analytical and computational properties. The estimate of the signal value is obtained at the unique minimum of the a posteriori log likelihood function. This function is convex so that the output of the filter can be easily computed by using either digital or analog computational methods. The effects of the various parameters of the model will be discussed, and the choice of the predetection order statistic filter will also be examined. Example outputs under various noise conditions will be given.     

Mitteilungen der Schweizer Informatik Gesellschaft / 5_2007

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Mitteilungen der Schweizer Informatik Gesellschaft 3/2007

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

A monolithically integrated optical differential amplifier forapplications in smart pixel arrays

A cascadable, optical differential amplifier with an active output is realized in AlGaAs-GaAs by the monolithic integration of three devices: A photodiode (PD), a light-emitting diode (LED) and a combination of a photodiode and a junction field-effect transistor (PINFET). A minimum optical switching power of 15 pW, an optical gain of more than 10⁶, a contrast ratio greater than 1000 and an optical output power of 17 μW are obtained. For a contrast ratio of 10, a switching energy of 2 pJ is required, resulting in a unity gain bandwidth of 4.2 MHz