Defect engineering of ZnO: Review on oxygen and zinc vacancies

ZnO is an important material which has been widely applied in photodetector, catalyst, gas sensor, field emitter, etc. Yet, its inability to absorb visible light, poor charge transport, and low conductivity limit the application of these devices. Recently, it was discovered that introduction of defects such as oxygen and zinc vacancies into ZnO can effectively improve the existing properties or lead to new and unexpected yet highly desirable characteristics. Herein, we present a systematic review on the available approaches to synthesize oxygen- and/or zinc-deficient ZnO with emphasis on their chemical, structural, and electrical particularities. Furthermore, applications of defective ZnO in various nanoscale devices are discussed in terms of their functionality, reliability, and performance. Finally, we summarize major challenges and offer perspectives for further research in this field. We hope that this review would make a valuable contribution to broaden the knowledge of defective ZnO.     

Highly conductive mesoporous hierarchical carbon hollow fibers fabricated via confinement of TiO2 coating by ALD

A polysulfone (PSF) hollow fiber composed of interconnected nanofibers within its wall was employed as a template to deposit with a layer of TiO₂ by atomic layer deposition. Direct nitridation of the TiO₂-coated PSF hollow fiber at 800 and 1000°C was conducted, and a new hierarchical structure of TiO_xN_1−x and TiN@nitrogen-doped carbon hollow fibers, respectively, was formed. The PSF fiber served as the source of carbon and was directly transformed to a nitrogen-doped carbon fiber because the shape change was confined by the TiO₂ coating. In the meantime, TiO_xN_1−x or TiN was formed after the nitridation of TiO₂. X-ray photoelectron spectrometric analysis indicated that there was no chemical bonding between the nitridized coating and the carbon nanofibers. It implies that the nitridation of TiO₂ and carbonization of PSF proceed independently and simultaneously in the nitridation process. Raman spectroscopic analysis also confirmed the formation of graphitic lattice and Ti–N bonding. Electrical measurement indicated that both fibers were highly conductive, with the electrical resistivity in the order of 10⁻⁵ Ω m, which is lower than those of amorphous carbon and graphite along the direction perpendicular to the basal plane.     

Backlit Keyboard Inspection Using Machine Vision

A robust system for backlit keyboard inspection is revealed. The backlit keyboard not only has changeable diverse colors but also has the laser marking keys. The keys on the keyboard can be divided into regions of function keys, normal keys, and number keys. However, there might have some types of defects:incorrect illuminating area, non-uniform illumination of specified inspection region (IR), and incorrect luminance and intensity of individual key. Since the illumination features of backlit keyboard are too complex to inspect for human inspector in the production line, an auto-mated inspection system for the backlit keyboard is proposed in this paper. The system was designed into the operation module and inspection module. A set of image processing methods were developed for these defects inspection. Some experimental results demonstrate the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed system.     

Ontology-based fuzzy support agent for ship steering control

The important field of research on ship operation is related to the high efficiency of transportation, the convenience of maneuvering ships, and the safety of navigation. This paper proposes an ontology-based fuzzy support agent for ship steering control and desires to testify the validity of the proposal by applying the fuzzy control model to the steering control system based on linguistic instruction. The fuzzy support agent is presented to build the maneuvering models of steersman and the miniature model for steering control system. The proposed fuzzy agent contains three main mechanisms, including the interpretation mechanism of linguistic instruction, the self-regulation mechanism, and the task performance mechanism. Furthermore, the task performance mechanism includes the kinematics module and the performance ontology. The simulation results show that the proposed approach can work effectively for ship steering control.     

HEAT TRANSFER AUGMENTATION OF MIXED CONVECTION THROUGH VORTEX SHEDDING FROM AN INCLINED PLATE IN A VERTICAL CHANNEL CONTAINING HEATED BLOCKS

A numerical analysis is made of the unsteady flow and heat transfer characteristics of mixed convection in a vertical block-heated channel with and without installing an inclined plate above an upstream block. Parameter studies including the inclined plate angle, Reynolds number (ranging from 260 to 530), and Grashof number (in the range of 0-3,200,000) on heat transfer performance have been explored in detail. The results show that the installation of an inclined plate in the vertical block-heated channel can effectively augment the blocks' heat transfer performance in the channel.     

Defect detection in periodic patterns using a multi-band-pass filter

This study presents a rapid and reliable technique for the inspection of defects in a two-dimensional periodic image using a multi-band-pass filter. More importantly, the blurring effect of the resultant defect images is significantly reduced, thereby resulting in a more precise estimation of the size of defects when compared with methods that use low-pass filtering. As a filter-based approach, the present technique does not require an alignment procedure. In addition, computational time is reduced by implementing multi-band-pass filters with convolution masks when the filters are operated in the spatial domain. Further, this approach involves mostly addition operations with very few multiplications; hence, computational time is significantly reduced when compared with those for existing approaches. The efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed multi-band-pass filter is verified through examples. It is observed that there is a significant reduction in blurring effects, leakage effects, and computational effort. It is noteworthy that though the proposed approach is presented as a two-dimensional filtering problem, it can be reduced to a one-dimensional filtering problem under the assumption that the misorientation angle of the inspected periodic pattern is negligibly small.     

How does Government Procurement Law affect bidding price competition in Taiwan?

To conform with the requirements of the international Government Procurement Agreement and the regulations of the World Trade Organization, the Taiwan Government Procurement Law (GPL) was enacted in 1999. The main points of the agreement and barriers affecting price competition are illustrated. Award prices for subcentral government civil engineering projects are compared before and after the law went into effect. The result suggests that civil engineering prices have decreased significantly since the introduction of the law, that the transparent and open-tendering system enforced by the law has led to an increase in competition, and that tender prices decreased during the initial period. During the same period, construction companies' average rate of profit on sales moved from positive to negative. It is concluded that severe bidding competition is expected after Taiwan completes accession to the agreement.     

A novel two-step etching to suppress the charging damages duringmetal etching employing helicon wave plasma

A two-step etching has been performed to eliminate the plasma charging damages during helicon-wave plasma metal etching without selectivity loss. This technique utilized a normal etching recipe to remove the Al film followed by an optimized etching recipe for the overetching step. By increasing the bias power and decreasing the source power, the optimum etching recipe can target the plasma more directionally and reduce the Al charging damages. Eventually, the damage mechanism was also reported     

Combination cytotoxic effects of cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II) and 5-fluorouracil with and without leucovorin against human non-small cell lung cancer cell lines

Both cisplatin (CDDP) and leucovorin (LV) have been shown to enhance cytotoxicity of 5-fluorouracil (FUra) against murine and human neoplasms by increasing intracellular reduced folate concentrations. We were interested in their use in a combination to inhibit non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell growth and therefore conducted an in vitro study to investigate the cytotoxic activities of combinations of CDDP plus FUra, with and without LV (20 microM), against seven NSCLC cell lines. A tetrazolium assay with application of the classical isobole method was used to test drug combinations. We found that LV enhanced FUra but not CDDP cytotoxicity and that the degree of enhancement was negatively correlated with the effect of FUra. There was an overall additive combination effect of CDDP plus FUra, although there may be synergy at higher effect levels. There was synergy to a combination of CDDP, FUra, and LV, presumably primarily related to the synergistic effects of adding LV to FUra. In summary, LV and CDDP enhanced FUra cytotoxicity in a complementary fashion and there was clear synergy of a combination of CDDP, FUra, and LV against a panel of NSCLC cell lines. Our in vitro results provide a rationale for controlled clinical studies of this three-drug regimen in patients with NSCLC.     

Analysis of simplified position and 5-DOF total orientation workspaces of a hexapod mechanism

The exact positional and total orientation workspaces of a hexapod parallel mechanism are three-dimensional volumes that are too complicated for an operator to make use of, but a knowledge of them is indispensable in order to avoid collisions with the environment and to locate the workpiece. Fortunately, the positional and total orientation workspaces of a symmetric simplified architecture (the SSM type) can be bounded from inside and outside by ellipsoids symmetric about the z-axis. Accordingly, this paper presents closed-form solutions for the radii of the inscribed and circumscribed circles of the positional workspace and approximate solutions for the total orientation workspace at any given height. These solutions can be plotted on a two-dimensional graph that is convenient for an operator on the shop floor. Furthermore, these solutions can be developed into a simple procedure for the design of a prescribed workspace.