The effect of different mild post-annealing treatments in air, at 270 degrees C, for 4-6 min, on the optical, electrical, structural and chemical properties of copper sulphide (CuxS) thin films deposited at room temperature are investigated. CuxS films, 70nm thick, are deposited on glass substrates by vacuum thermal evaporation from a Cu2S:S (50:50 wt.%) sulphur rich powder mixture. The as-deposited highly conductive crystalline CuS (covellite) films show high carrier concentration (similar to 10(22) cm(-3)), low electrical resistivity (similar to 10(-4) Omega cm) and inconclusive p-type conduction. After the mild post-annealing, these films display increasing values of resistivity (similar to 10(-3) to similar to 10(-2) Omega cm) with annealing time and exhibit conclusive p-type conduction. An increase of copper content in CuxS phases towards the semiconductive Cu2S (chalcocite) compound with annealing time is reported, due to re-evaporation of sulphur from the films. However, the latter stoichiometry was not obtained, which indicates the presence of vacancies in the Cu lattice. In the most resistive films a Cu2O phase is also observed, diminishing the amount of available copper to combine with sulphur, and therefore the highest values of optical transmittance are reached (65%). The appearance on the surface of amorphous sulphates with annealing time increase is also detected as a consequence of sulphur oxidation and replacement of sulphur with oxygen. All annealed films are copper deficient in regards to the stoichiometric Cu2S and exhibit stable p-type conductivity. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The effect of different mild post-annealing treatments in air, at 270 degrees C, for 4-6 min, on the optical, electrical, structural and chemical properties of copper sulphide (CuxS) thin films deposited at room temperature are investigated. CuxS films, 70nm thick, are deposited on glass substrates by vacuum thermal evaporation from a Cu2S:S (50:50 wt.%) sulphur rich powder mixture. The as-deposited highly conductive crystalline CuS (covellite) films show high carrier concentration (similar to 10(22) cm(-3)), low electrical resistivity (similar to 10(-4) Omega cm) and inconclusive p-type conduction. After the mild post-annealing, these films display increasing values of resistivity (similar to 10(-3) to similar to 10(-2) Omega cm) with annealing time and exhibit conclusive p-type conduction. An increase of copper content in CuxS phases towards the semiconductive Cu2S (chalcocite) compound with annealing time is reported, due to re-evaporation of sulphur from the films. However, the latter stoichiometry was not obtained, which indicates the presence of vacancies in the Cu lattice. In the most resistive films a Cu2O phase is also observed, diminishing the amount of available copper to combine with sulphur, and therefore the highest values of optical transmittance are reached (65%). The appearance on the surface of amorphous sulphates with annealing time increase is also detected as a consequence of sulphur oxidation and replacement of sulphur with oxygen. All annealed films are copper deficient in regards to the stoichiometric Cu2S and exhibit stable p-type conductivity. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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The supply chains (SCs) have to appeal to new management paradigms to improve their ability to respond rapidly and cost effectively to unpredictable changes in markets and increasing levels of environmental turbulence, both in terms of volume and variety. In this highly demanded context, the Agile paradigm provides the capabilities to SC quickly adapt to changes in the market requirements. The purpose of this paper is to suggest an Agile Index to assess the agility of the automotive companies and corresponding SCs.The proposed integrated assessment model incorporates Agile practices weighted according to their importance to the automotive SC competitiveness and obtained from the Delphi technique.

Saturation Transfer Difference-NMR (STD-NMR) spectroscopy has emerged as a powerful screening tool and a straightforward way to study the binding epitopes of active compounds in early stage lead discovery in pharmaceutical research. Here we report the application of STD NMR to characterize the binding of the anti-inflammatory drugs ibuprofen, diclofenac and ketorolac to COX-1 and COX-2. Using well-studied COX inhibitors and by comparing STD signals with crystallographic structures we show that there is a relation between the orientations of ibuprofen and diclofenac in the COX-2 active site and the relative STD responses detected in the NMR experiments. Based on this analysis we propose that ketorolac should bind to the COX-2 active site in similar orientation as that of diclofenac. We also show that the combination of STD NMR with competition experiments constitutes a valuable tool to address the recently proposed behavior of COX-2 as functional heterodimers and complement enzyme activity studies in the effort to rationalize COX inhibition mechanisms.

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