Copper oxide is a well known p-type semiconductor material, usually obtained by thermal oxidation of copper thin-films within few minutes, at atmospheric pressure. In this paper, thin films of copper oxide that were deposited by radio-frequency plasma enhanced reactive thermal evaporation of copper at room temperature, without any post-deposition annealing treatment, are studied. The deposition of good quality p-type semiconductor oxide to be used in the fabrication of p-TFTs is the purpose of this work. The thickness of the films varies from 97 up to 160 nm. The influence of rf power density on chemical, electrical and optical properties of the films was studied. Samples present conductivity within the range of 6 x 10(-5) to 4 x 10(2) Omega(-1) cm(-1) (thermal activation energy in the interval 0.46 to 0.01 eV). The p-type conductivity of the films was confirmed by Seebeck effect in the more conductive samples. Surface composition obtained by XPS analysis was correlated with optical and electrical properties, showing that rf-power plays a main role in changes of material characteristics.

Copper oxide is a well known p-type semiconductor material, usually obtained by thermal oxidation of copper thin-films within few minutes, at atmospheric pressure. In this paper, thin films of copper oxide that were deposited by radio-frequency plasma enhanced reactive thermal evaporation of copper at room temperature, without any post-deposition annealing treatment, are studied. The deposition of good quality p-type semiconductor oxide to be used in the fabrication of p-TFTs is the purpose of this work. The thickness of the films varies from 97 up to 160 nm. The influence of rf power density on chemical, electrical and optical properties of the films was studied. Samples present conductivity within the range of 6 x 10(-5) to 4 x 10(2) Omega(-1) cm(-1) (thermal activation energy in the interval 0.46 to 0.01 eV). The p-type conductivity of the films was confirmed by Seebeck effect in the more conductive samples. Surface composition obtained by XPS analysis was correlated with optical and electrical properties, showing that rf-power plays a main role in changes of material characteristics.

We study the total cross section and angular distribution in Rayleigh scattering by hydrogen atom in the ground state, within the framework of Dirac relativistic equation and second-order perturbation theory. The relativistic states used for the calculations are obtained by making use of the finite basis-set method and expressed in terms of B splines and B polynomials. We pay particular attention to the effects that arise from higher (nondipole) terms in the expansion of the electron-photon interaction. It is shown that the angular distribution of scattered photons, while symmetric with respect to the scattering angle θ=90∘ within the electric dipole approximation, becomes asymmetric when higher multipoles are taken into account. The analytical expression of the angular distribution is parametrized in terms of Legendre polynomials. Detailed calculations are performed for photons in the energy range 0.5 to 10 keV. When possible, results are compared with previous calculations.

Prediction models of software change requests are useful for supporting rational and timely resource
allocation to the evolution process. In this paper we use a time series forecasting model to predict software
maintenance and evolution requests in an open source software project (Eclipse), as an example of projects with seasonal release cycles. We build an ARIMA model based on data collected from Eclipse’s change request tracking system since the project’s start. A change request may refer to defects found in the software, but also to suggested improvements in the system under scrutiny. Our model includes the identification of seasonal patterns and tendencies, and is validated through the forecast of the change requests evolution for the next 12 months. The usage of seasonal information significantly improves the estimation ability of this model, when compared to other ARIMA models found in the literature, and does so for a much longer estimation period. Being able to accurately forecast the change requests’ evolution over a fairly long time period is an important ability for enabling adequate process control in maintenance activities, and facilitates
effort estimation and timely resources allocation. The approach presented in this paper is suitable for projects with a relatively long history, as the model building process relies on historic data.

Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) are claimed to bring important productivity improvements to developers,
when compared to General-Purpose Languages (GPLs). The increased Usability is regarded as one of the key benefits of DSLs when compared to GPLs, and has an important impact on the achieved productivity of the DSL users. So, it is essential to build in good usability while developing the DSL. The purpose of this proposal is to contribute to the systematic activity of Software Language Engineering by focusing on the
issue of the Usability evaluation of DSLs. Usability evaluation is often skipped, relaxed, or at least omitted from papers reporting development of DSLs. We argue that a systematic approach based on User Interface experimental validation techniques should be used to assess the impact of new DSLs. For that purpose, we propose to merge common Usability evaluation processes with the DSL development process. In order to provide reliable metrics and tools we should reuse and identify good practices that exist in Human-Computer
Interaction community.

A indústria do betão pré fabricado é, por tradição, inovadora, precursora de novas tecnologias e de novos materiais.O processo produtivo de estruturas com elementos pré-fabricados difere significativamente do das estruturas betonadas em obra pelo facto de uma parte, ou a totalidade, dos elementos da estrutura serem produzidos em fábrica, em condições de produção melhoradas em relação às condições da obra, e serem posteriormente transportados para a obra, onde são, finalmente ligados entre si. A produção em fábrica é efectuada em ambiente protegido do Sol e da chuva, com operários fixos e com formação profissional para desenvolverem tarefas com procedimentos normalizados. Consequentemente, os elementos executados em fábrica possuem melhor qualidade, sob vários aspectos, do que as estruturas executadas em obra.Este livro divide-se em duas grandes áreas, numa primeira abordam-se algumas aplicações de estruturas pré-moldadas no mundo e numa segunda parte descreve-se o seu comportamento estrutural face a diferentes acções. Nos primeiros capítulos relata-se a experiência da pré-fabricação em três países de diferentes continentes: o Brasil, Portugal e a Austrália e revelam-se novas oportunidades que poderão surgir para a indústria da pré-fabricação. Nos capítulos seguintes dá-se um especial enfoque à investigação do comportamento das ligações (rígidas e semi-rígidas). Aborda-se o projecto de estruturas de betão pré-fabricado às acções acidentais. E por fim, dedicam-se os últimos capítulos ao comportamento das estruturas pré-fabricadas face às acções sísmicas. Nesta área, o bom desempenho das estruturas e grande parte do conhecimento e da tecnologia actual advém da resposta dada pelos engenheiros, investigadores e construtores aos fenómenos naturais que afectam as nossas construções, como comprova o desempenho das ligações dúcteis resistentes a momentos em edifícios pré fabricados de betão no verdadeiro teste sísmico que foram os sismos de Christchurch de 2010 e 2011.

The layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly of polyelectrolyte pairs on temperature and pH-sensitive cross-linked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-co-(methacrylic acid), poly(NIPAAm-co-MAA), microgels enabled a fine-tuning of the gel swelling and responsive behavior according to the mobility of the assembled polyelectrolyte (PE) pair and the composition of the outermost layer. Microbeads with well-defined morphology were initially prepared by synthesis in supercritical carbon dioxide. Upon LbL assembly of polyelectrolytes, interactions between the multilayers and the soft porous microgel led to differences in swelling and thermoresponsive behavior. For the weak PE pairs, namely poly(l-lysine)/poly(l-glutamic acid) and poly(allylamine hydrochloride)/poly(acrylic acid), polycation-terminated microgels were less swollen and more thermoresponsive than native microgel, whereas polyanion-terminated microgels were more swollen and not significantly responsive to temperature, in a quasi-reversible process with consecutive PE assembly. For the strong PE pair, poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride)/poly(sodium styrene sulfonate), the differences among polycation and polyanion-terminated microgels are not sustained after the first PE bilayer due to extensive ionic cross-linking between the polyelectrolytes. The tendencies across the explored systems became less noteworthy in solutions with larger ionic strength due to overall charge shielding of the polyelectrolytes and microgel. ATR FT-IR studies correlated the swelling and responsive behavior after LbL assembly on the microgels with the extent of H-bonding and alternating charge distribution within the gel. Thus, the proposed LbL strategy may be a simple and flexible way to engineer smart microgels in terms of size, surface chemistry, overall charge and permeability.The layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly of polyelectrolyte pairs on temperature and pH-sensitive cross-linked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-co-(methacrylic acid), poly(NIPAAm-co-MAA), microgels enabled a fine-tuning of the gel swelling and responsive behavior according to the mobility of the assembled polyelectrolyte (PE) pair and the composition of the outermost layer. Microbeads with well-defined morphology were initially prepared by synthesis in supercritical carbon dioxide. Upon LbL assembly of polyelectrolytes, interactions between the multilayers and the soft porous microgel led to differences in swelling and thermoresponsive behavior. For the weak PE pairs, namely poly(l-lysine)/poly(l-glutamic acid) and poly(allylamine hydrochloride)/poly(acrylic acid), polycation-terminated microgels were less swollen and more thermoresponsive than native microgel, whereas polyanion-terminated microgels were more swollen and not significantly responsive to temperature, in a quasi-reversible process with consecutive PE assembly. For the strong PE pair, poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride)/poly(sodium styrene sulfonate), the differences among polycation and polyanion-terminated microgels are not sustained after the first PE bilayer due to extensive ionic cross-linking between the polyelectrolytes. The tendencies across the explored systems became less noteworthy in solutions with larger ionic strength due to overall charge shielding of the polyelectrolytes and microgel. ATR FT-IR studies correlated the swelling and responsive behavior after LbL assembly on the microgels with the extent of H-bonding and alternating charge distribution within the gel. Thus, the proposed LbL strategy may be a simple and flexible way to engineer smart microgels in terms of size, surface chemistry, overall charge and permeability.

For years the development of software artifacts was the sole domain of developers and project
managers. However, experience has taught us that the Users play a very important role in
software development and construction. On Domain Specific Languages the inclusion of the
domain experts directly in the development cycle is a very important characteristic, as they have
often an important role in making and constraining the domain of the language.
DSLs are credited with increased productivity and ease of use, but this fact is hardly ever proven.
Moreover, usability tests are frequently only performed at the final stages of the project when
changes have a significant impact on the budget. To help prevent this, in this paper we present a
pattern language for evaluating the usability of DSLs. Our patterns can help show how to use an
iterative usability validation development strategy to produce DSLs that can achieve a high
degree of usability.