1,721,573 research outputs found

    Preparation method of double-textured ZnO:B films deposited by MOCVD on plasma etched polymer buffer

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    With the aim of enhancing light trapping phenomenon in PV thin film silicon devices, a method has been developed to produce highly textured TCO surfaces by the growth of ZnO:B on a buffer layer consisting of UV-cured highly transparent acrylic polymer (IBA) whose surface had been modified by RIE process. Different RIE etching conditions, particularly RF-power and process duration, have been used to obtain different polymer surface modifications. The effect of different treatment conditions on polymer surface has been systematically investigated and subsequently correlated to the properties of ZnO:B films deposited by MOCVD on these modified polymer surfaces. The surface morphology of zinc oxide film, growth on IBA buffer layer, changed from conventional pyramid-like single-texture to cauliflower-like double-texture. The morphology of double-textured ZnO strongly depended on the surface properties of the etched polymer. Excellent scattering properties were obtained and at the wavelength of 800 nm the haze value increased from 7.5% (pyramidal-like single-texture ZnO layer on glass) to 68% (double textured ZnO film obtained on etched IBA, treated for 20 min at RF-power of 80 W). The RMS roughness showed similar behaviour: it increased at the increasing of the etching time and the highest value of 160 nm was obtained for cauliflower-like ZnO:B film. Good electrical properties were maintained for double-textured ZnO:B films with excellent scattering properties. © 2014 Elsevier B.V

    Testing cosmic ray composition models with very large-volume neutrino telescopes

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    The composition in terms of nuclear species of the primary cosmic ray flux is largely uncertain in the knee region and above, where only indirect measurements are available. The predicted fluxes of high-energy leptons from cosmic ray air showers are influenced by this uncertainty. Different models have been proposed. Similarly, these uncertainties affect the measurement of lepton fluxes in very large-volume neutrino telescopes. Uncertainties in the cosmic ray interaction processes, mainly deriving from the limited amount of experimental data covering the particle physics at play, could also produce similar differences in the observable lepton fluxes and are affected as well by large uncertainties. In this paper we analyse how considering different models for the primary cosmic ray composition affects the expected rates in the current generation of very large-volume neutrino telescopes (ANTARES and IceCube). This is tested comparing two possible models of cosmic ray composition, but the same procedure can be expanded to different possible combinations of cosmic ray abundances. We observe that a certain degree of discrimination between composition fits can be already achieved with the current IceCube data sample, even though in a model-dependent way. The expected improvements in the energy reconstruction achievable with the next-generation neutrino telescopes is be expected to make these instruments more sensitive to the differences between models

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Diffuse neutrino emissions from the Southern sky and Mediterranean neutrino telescopes

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    Astrophysical high-energy neutrinos offer an extremely interesting window of observation on our Universe. Cosmic neutrinos are probes for extreme events happening nearby the most powerful astrophysical objects. Direct information on the behaviour of cosmic ray sources is provided by neutrinos: since they are weakly interacting neutral particles, barely changing their information load over cosmic distance, the detection of neutrinos from the interaction of primary cosmic rays close to their acceleration site could allow the identification of their sources and of their production and acceleration mechanisms. Compelling evidence for the existence of an astrophysical flux of neutrinos above some tens of TeV has been reported by the IceCube Collaboration. Some features of the energy and declination distributions of the IceCube signal hint at a North/South asymmetry of the measured neutrino flux, which could be related to the presence of the bulk of our Galaxy in the Southern hemisphere. The ANTARES neutrino telescope, operating in the Mediterranean Sea since 2007, offers the best sensitivity to muon neutrinos below 100TeV in this part of the sky. This allows the detector to focus on the neutrino flux produced by galactic cosmic ray interactions in the bulk of the Milky Way. Studies on possible neutrino signals using ANTARES data collected are reported in this paper, as well as the prospects for the next-generation neutrino telescope, KM3NeT/ARCA, to be built in the Mediterranean Sea. In particular, ANTARES can already test the propagation mechanisms of cosmic rays in the Milky Way by constraining the contribution from the Galactic Plane to the total neutrino flux observed by IceCube. The KM3NeT/ARCA detector will then allow the detailed study of galactic neutrino fluxes

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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