The effect of the Si electrode morphology (amorphous hydrogenated silicon thin films – a-Si:H as a model electrode and Si nanowires – SiNWs electrode) on the interphase chemistry was thoroughly investigated by the surface science techniques: X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). XPS analysis shows a strong attenuation and positive ...

The interaction of ultrathin Cu films with Pd(111) was studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The effects of Cu coverage and annealing temperature were investigated. The XPS data show that at room temperature Cu grows on Pd(111) layer-by-layer without alloying. Furthermore, Cu 2p3/2 core-level shifts as a function of film thickness indicate that the Cu-Pd interactions perturb the el...

Eight Escherichia coli strains were characterized by determining their adhesion to xylene, surface free energy, zeta potential, relative surface charge, and their chemical composition. The latter was done by applying X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and infrared spectroscopy (IR). No relationship between the adhesion to xylene and the water contact angles of these strains was found. Three...

Cotton fabric was treated with fluorine gas in a nitrogen atmosphere. The effect of fluorination treatments on wettability, whiteness index, dyeability and mechanical properties of cotton fabrics were assessed. Kawabata analysis shows that fluorination treatment increases shear stiffness G, shear hysteresis 2HG5, bending stiffness B and overall fabric stiffness Koshi on cotton fabric. Fluorinat...

Available online 13 February 2013

Disparity map generation is a significant component of vision-based driver assistance systems. This report describes an efficient implementation of a belief propagation algorithm on GPUs that can be used to speed up stereo image processing. For evaluation purposes, different kinds of images have been used: reference images from the Middlebury stereo website, and real-world stereo sequences, sel...

The Bulletin of the Technical Committee on Data Engineering is published quarterly and is distributed to all TC members. Its scope includes the design, implementation, modelling, theory and application of database systems and their technology. Letters, conference information, and news should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief. Papers for each issue are solicited by and should be sent to the Associa...

The one-step synthesis and characterization of nanostructured metallic platinum microspheres by a low-pressure flat flame technique is presented here. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) analyzed the as-derived powders. Collectively, the results obtained from these analyses confirmed the formation of microsphere...