Fabrication and electrical characterisation of Zr-substituted BaTiO3 thin films

Thin films of zirconium-substituted barium titanate were deposited by chemical solution deposition on platinum-coated silicon substrates at a temperature of 700 °C. The films showed a polycrystalline perovskite structure. The grain size was found to decrease with increase of Zr substitution. The effect of Zr substitution on the dielectric constant and the leakage was studied. It was found that with increasing Zr content the phase transition becomes diffuse and relaxor-like. The dielectric constant was also found to decrease with increasing amounts of Zr after an initial increase. The hysteresis loops became thinner and the remanent polarisation was found to decrease. The leakage behaviour was explained by Schottky theory. The barrier heights of the different films were calculated and found to vary between 1.12 eV and 1.19 eV. PACS 68.55.-a; 81.20.Fw; 77.84.Dy     

On fuzzy semi δ-<Emphasis Type="Italic">V</Emphasis> continuity in fuzzy δ-<Emphasis Type="Italic">V</Emphasis> topological space

New concepts of fuzzy semi δ-V and fuzzy semi δ-Λ sets were introduced in our work “On fuzzy semi δ-Λ sets and fuzzy semi δ-V sets V-6,” J. Trip. Math. Soc., 6, 81–88 (2004). It was shown that the family of all fuzzy semi δ-V sets forms a fuzzy supra topological space on X denoted by (X, FS ^δV ). The aim of this paper is to introduce the concept of fuzzy semi δ-V continuity in a fuzzy δ-V topological space. Finally, some properties, preservation theorems, etc., are studied. Published in Ukrains’kyi Matematychnyi Zhurnal, Vol. 60, No. 5, pp. 712–717, May, 2008.     

Über Verfeinerungen von Partitionen

Ohne Zusammenfassung

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Some New Techniques in Transportation Planning<Superscript>†</Superscript>

The development of urban transportation planning models has accelerated in the past decade, until they are now widely accepted aids to the urban decision process. However, the models have had limited impact upon individual decisions, because of their complexity and size. In the absence of radical new approaches to planning, a methodology is suggested to complement the existing procedures.This methodology, which is referred to as "perturbation", is illustrated by reference to the choice of a future network. Some results are presented for the budgeting of capital for a set of investments.     

Transport in boundary layer of divertor tokamaks

Study of transport in the boundary layer of tokamak plasma in presence of magnetic divertors is extended to the second order in ion collision frequency. Numerical results for ion and energy losses to the collector plates are presented for toroidal and poloidal divertors. For the toroidal case, the Wiener-Hopf solution for the second order distribution function is obtained. An error occurring in an earlier first order calculation is pointed out and corrected first order fluxes are also given. For the poloidal divertor, asymmetry observed in ion and energy transport is found to persist in the second order result.     

Cytotoxic Oligomers and Fibrils Trapped in a Gel‐like State of α‐Synuclein Assemblies

α‐Synuclein (α‐Syn) aggregation is associated with Parkinson's disease (PD) pathogenesis. In PD, the role of oligomers versus fibrils in neuronal cell death is debatable, but recent studies suggest oligomers are a proximate neurotoxin. Herein, we show that soluble α‐Syn monomers undergo a transformation from a solution to a gel state on incubation at high concentration. Detailed characterization of the gel showed the coexistence of monomers, oligomers, and short fibrils. In vitro, the gel was highly cytotoxic to human neuroblastoma cells. The individual constituents of the gel are short‐lived species but toxic to the cells. They comprise a structurally heterogeneous population of α‐helical and β‐sheet‐rich oligomers and short fibrils with the cross‐β motif. Given the recent evidence of the gel‐like state of the protein associated with neurodegenerative diseases, the gel state of α‐Syn in this study represents a mechanistic and structural model for the in vivo toxicity of α‐Syn in PD.