General vertebrate paleontological techniques that have been used in the Museum of Lourinhã (Portugal) are presented here, in particular those applied to a stegosaurian dinosaur skeleton, Miragaia longicollum. A monolith jacket technique using polyurethane foam and plaster is presented. Mechanical preparation
techniques combining the use of an electric grinder and airscribes proved effective during the initial phases of preparation on well-preserved bone embedded in hard matrix. We also present a technique to mould monoliths in the early stages of preparation, creating a thin silicone rubber mould in several contiguous
parts. To mould and cast monoliths before removing individual bones has proven valuable for the preservation of taphonomic data and for display purposes. Polyurethane resin combined with plaster is useful for small casts, while polyester resin applied in four layers is the preferred technique for larger casts.
The four layers are composed of: a first thin layer of polyester resin with bone colour; followed by another layer of polyester resin of sediment colour and containing glass microspheres to make it thicker. The third layer is composed of fibre glass chopped strands, and the fourth is composed of fibre glass mats embedded
in plain polyester resin. 3D scanning and digitization techniques where tested for the storage of osteological information of individual bones and proved very promising.

The aim of this research is to study the role of concentration variations on precursor solution of nitrogen doped ZnO (ZnO:N) thin films which has been prepared by spray pyrolysis technique. SEM micrographs show that ZnO:N films in 0.1 ML concentration have a mono-disperse surface with nano-spheres of 50 nm in diameter. In higher molarities the nano-spheres agglomerate leading to particle formation. For 0.4 ML concentrations this change is observed, where plume like particles are seen over the surface of ZnO:N thin film. This change corresponds also to changes observed in the XRD spectra, where crystal orientation of ZnO:N thin films changes from (002) to (100). All of the ZnO:N thin films have kept their sharp ultra violet absorption edge, but the transparency in visible spectra region decreases as the molarities in precursor solution increase. Photoluminescence spectra at room temperature revealed emissions at 2.33 eV, 2.54 eV and 3.16 eV that can be attributed to the presence of nitrogen in ZnO structure. We also observe that all samples analyzed show a p-type Hall effect behavior, and that as the molarities in the precursor solution increase, the electrical resistivity of the films decreases, due to an enhancement of free carriers, while the mobility decreases. These data prove the capability of spray pyrolysis as a viable technique in preparing p-type TCO materials and so, fully transparent CMOS-like devices. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In this paper we report the use of a sheet of cellulose fiber-based paper as the dielectric layer used in oxide based semiconductor thin film field-effect transistors (FETs). In this new approach we are using the cellulose fiber-based paper in an "interstate" structure since the device is build on both sides of the cellulose sheet. Such hybrid FETs present excellent operating characteristics such as high channel saturation mobility (>30 cm 2/Vs), drain-source current on/off modulation ratio of approximately 104, near-zero threshold voltage, enhancement n-type operation and sub-threshold gate voltage swing of 0.8 V/decade. The cellulose fiber-based paper FETs characteristics have been measured in air ambient conditions and present good stability. The obtained results outpace those of amorphous Si TFTs and rival with the same oxide based TFTs produced on either glass or crystalline silicon substrates. The compatibility of these devices with large-scale/large-area deposition techniques and low cost substrates as well as their very low operating bias delineates this as a promising approach to attain high-performance disposable electronics like paper displays, smart labels, smart packaging, RFID and point-of-care systems for self analysis in bio-applications, among others. © 2009 SPIE.

High performance transparent thin-film transistors deposited on glass substrates and entirely processed at a low temperature not exceeding 150°C are presented and analyzed in this paper. Besides being based on an amorphous oxide semiconductor, the main innovation of this work relies on the use of sputtered multicomponent oxides as dielectric materials based on mixtures of Ta2O5 with SiO2 or Al2O3. These multicomponent dielectrics allow to obtain amorphous structures and low leakage currents while preserving a high dielectric constant. This results in transistors with remarkable electrical properties, such as field-effect mobility exceeding 35 cm2 V-1 s-1, close to 0 V turn-on voltage, on/off ratio higher than 106, and a subthreshold slope of 0.24 V decade-1, obtained with a Ta2O5: SiO2 dielectric. When subjected to severe current stress tests, optimized devices show little and reversible variation in their electrical characteristics. The devices presented here have properties comparable to the ones using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposited SiO2 at 400°C, reinforcing the success of this amorphous multicomponent dielectric approach for low temperature, high performance, and transparent electronic circuits. © 2009 The Electrochemical Society.

Plants are often subjected to periods of soil and atmospheric water deficits during their life cycle as well as, in many areas of the globe, to high soil salinity. Understanding how plants respond to drought, salt and co-occurring stresses can play a major role in stabilizing crop performance under drought and saline conditions and in the protection of natural vegetation. Photosynthesis, together with cell growth, is among the primary processes to be affected by water or salt stress. The effects of drought and salt stresses on photosynthesis are either direct (as the diffusion limitations through the stomata and the mesophyll and the alterations in photosynthetic metabolism) or secondary, such as the oxidative stress arising from the superimposition of multiple stresses. The carbon balance of a plant during a period of salt/water stress and recovery may depend as much on the velocity and degree of photosynthetic recovery, as it depends on the degree and velocity of photosynthesis decline during water depletion. Current knowledge about physiological limitations to photosynthetic recovery after different intensities of water and salt stress is still scarce. From the large amount of data available on transcript-profiling studies in plants subjected to drought and salt it is becoming apparent that plants perceive and respond to these stresses by quickly altering gene expression in parallel with physiological and biochemical alterations; this occurs even under mild to moderate stress conditions. From a recent comprehensive study that compared salt and drought stress it is apparent that both stresses led to down-regulation of some photosynthetic genes, with most of the changes being small (ratio threshold lower than 1) possibly reflecting the mild stress imposed. When compared with drought, salt stress affected more genes and more intensely, possibly reflecting the combined effects of dehydration and osmotic stress in salt-stressed plants.