Interfaces are back, or perhaps they never left. The familiar Socratic conceit from the Phaedrus, of communication as the process of writing directly on the soul of the other, has returned to center stage in today's discussions of culture and media. Indeed Western thought has long construed media as a grand choice between two kinds of interfaces. Following the optimistic path, media seamlessly interface self and other in a transparent and immediate connection. But, following the pessimistic path, media are the obstacles to direct communion, disintegrating self and other into misunderstanding and contradiction. In other words, media interfaces are either clear or complicated, either beautiful or deceptive, either already known or endlessly interpretable. Recognizing the limits of either path, Galloway charts an alternative course by considering the interface as an autonomous zone of aesthetic activity, guided by its own logic and its own ends: the interface effect. Rather than praising user-friendly interfaces that work well, or castigating those that work poorly, this book considers the unworkable nature of all interfaces, from windows and doors to screens and keyboards. Considered allegorically, such thresholds do not so much tell the story of their own operations but beckon outward into the realm of social and political life, and in so doing ask a question to which the political interpretation of interfaces is the only coherent answer. Grounded in philosophy and cultural theory and driven by close readings of video games, software, television, painting, and other images, Galloway seeks to explain the logic of digital culture through an analysis of its most emblematic and ubiquitous manifestation – the interface.

VLSI Electronics Microstructure Science, Volume 10: Surface and Interface Effects in VLSI provides the advances made in the science of semiconductor surface and interface as they relate to electronics. This volume aims to provide a better understanding and control of surface and interface related properties. The book begins with an introductory chapter on the intimate link between interfaces and devices. The book is then divided into two parts. The first part covers the chemical and geometric structures of prototypical VLSI interfaces. Subjects detailed include, the technologically most important interface, Si-SiO2 and the interplay between interface chemistry and the causes for metal-semiconductor contact behavior, primarily in the III-Vs. The following section deals primarily with the electronic properties of interfaces. Under this section, compound semiconductors, semiconductor-semiconductor interface, constraints that the microscopic interface places on architectures involving metal-semiconductor (MESFET), "Ohmic" contacts, and the behavior of very small, high-speed devices are discussed extensively. The final chapter shows that the Si - SiO2 interface can play a major role in determining carrier transport when MOSFETS are scaled down to ULSI dimensions. Engineers, designers, and scientists will find the book very useful.

The authors study dynamical effects of incident compressional and distortional elastic waves on a layer of planar, cylindrical, or spherical geometry, especially focusing on the stress fields surrounding the layer. These results are derived from the exact solutions for elastic wave scattering from such interfaces developped in the first part of the book. Comparisons of numerical solutions of special problems with the analytical solutions are given and it is shown how the latter help to simplify the numerical treatment. The material presented in this monograph will help in developing composite materials with improved chemical and physical properties and in non-destructive testing of such materials. Engineers, physicists, and workers in applied mathematics will welcome this well written text. It may also be used for additional reading in a course on elasto-mechanics.

The experiment provided confirmation, both qualitative and quantitative, of the "first-last collision model" of the air-ground interface effect.

The great tunability of structure and electronic properties of ?-conjugated organic molecules/polymers combined with other advantages such as light weight and flexibility etc., have made organic-based electronics the focus of an exciting still-growing field of physics and chemistry for more than half a century. The application of organic electronics has led to the appearance of wide range of organic electronic devices mainly including organic light emitting diodes (OLED), organic field effect transistors (OFET) and organic solar cells (OSC). The application of the organic electronic devices mainly is limited by two dominant parameters, i.e., their performance and stability. Up to date, OLED has been successfully commercialized in the market while the OSC are still on the way to commercialization hindered by low efficiency and inferior stability. Understanding the energy levels of organic materials and energy level alignment of the devices is crucial to control the efficiency and stability of the OSC. In this thesis, energy levels measured by different methods are studied to explore their relationship with device properties, and the strategies on how to design efficient and stable OSC based on energy level diagrams are provided. Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) is a traditional and widely used method to probe the energy levels of organic materials, although there is little consensus on how to relate the oxidation/reduction potential ((Eox/Ered) to the vacuum level. Ultraviolet Photoelectron Spectroscopy (UPS) can be used to directly detect vertical ionization potential (IP) of organic materials. In this thesis, a linear relationship of IP and Eox was found, with a slope equal to unity. The relationship provides for easy conversion of values obtained by the two techniques, enabling complementarily use in designing and fabricating efficient and stable OSC. A popular rule of thumb is that the offset between the LUMO levels of donor and acceptor should be 0.3 eV, according to which a binary solar cell with the minimum voltage losses around 0.49 V was designed here. Introduction of the ternary blend as active layer is an efficient way to improve both efficiency and stability of the OSC. Based on our studied energy-level diagram within the integer charge transfer (ICT) model, we designed ternary solar cells with enhanced open circuit voltage for the first time and improved thermal stability compared to reference binary ones. The ternary solar cell with minimum voltage losses was developed by combining two donor materials with same ionization potential and positive ICT energy while featuring complementary optical absorption. Furthermore, the fullerene acceptor was chosen so that the energy of the positive ICT state of the two donor polymers is equal to the energy of negative ICT state of the fullerene, which can enhance dissociation of all polymer donor and fullerene acceptor excitons and suppress bimolecular and trap-assistant recombination. Rapid development of non-fullerene acceptors in the last two years affords more recipes of designing both efficient and stabile OSC. We show in this thesis how non-fullerene acceptors successfully can be used to design ternary solar cells with both enhanced efficiency and thermal stability. Besides improving the efficiency of the devices, understanding of the stability and degradation mechanism is another key issue. The degradation of conjugated molecules/polymers often follow many complicated pathways and at the same time many factors for degradation are coupled with each other. Therefore, the degradation of non-fullerene acceptors was investigated in darkness by photoelectron spectroscopy in this thesis with the in-situ method of controlling exposure of O2 and water vapor separately.

Some vols., 1920-1949, contain collections of papers according to subject.

The first systematic reference on the topic with an emphasis on the characteristics and dimension of the reinforcement. This first of three volumes, authored by leading researchers in the field from academia, government, industry, as well as private research institutions around the globe, focuses on macro and micro composites. Clearly divided into three sections, the first offers an introduction to polymer composites, discussing the state of the art, new challenges, and opportunities of various polymer composite systems, as well as preparation and manufacturing techniques. The second part looks at macro systems, with an emphasis on fiber reinforced polymer composites, textile composites, and polymer hybrid composites. Likewise, the final section deals with micro systems, including micro particle reinforced polymer composites, the synthesis, surface modification and characterization of micro particulate fillers and flakes as well as filled polymer micro composites, plus applications and the recovery, recycling and life cycle analysis of synthetic polymeric composites.

An examination of telepresence technologies through the lens of contemporary artistic experiments, from early video art through current “drone vision” works. "Telepresence” allows us to feel present—through vision, hearing, and even touch—at a remote location by means of real-time communication technology. Networked devices such as video cameras and telerobots extend our corporeal agency into distant spaces. In Here/There, Kris Paulsen examines telepresence technologies through the lens of contemporary artistic experiments, from early video art through current “drone vision” works. Paulsen traces an arc of increasing interactivity, as video screens became spaces for communication and physical, tactile intervention. She explores the work of artists who took up these technological tools and questioned the aesthetic, social, and ethical stakes of media that allow us to manipulate and affect far-off environments and other people—to touch, metaphorically and literally, those who cannot touch us back. Paulsen examines 1970s video artworks by Vito Acconci and Joan Jonas, live satellite performance projects by Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, and CCTV installations by Chris Burden. These early works, she argues, can help us make sense of the expansion of our senses by technologies that privilege real time over real space and model strategies for engagement and interaction with mediated others. They establish a political, aesthetic, and technological history for later works using cable TV infrastructures and the World Wide Web, including telerobotic works by Ken Goldberg and Wafaa Bilal and artworks about military drones by Trevor Paglen, Omar Fast, Hito Steyerl, and others. These works become a meeting place for here and there.

Nanotechnology is a vibrant research area and a growing industry. The properties of nanoparticles and nanofluids are different from those of macroparticles and macrofluids because the physical and chemical properties are very dissimilar when dimensions are at the nanometer range. The first successes in using nanofluids for cooling were achieved and commercialized for automobiles; hence, this subarea is rather profitable. Other nanotechnology research and developmental areas are cutting edge. The core scientific principles of all nanotechnology applications are based in physics, chemistry, and engineering. Nanotechnology is not taught in most programs of engineering yet, and this book on nanotechnology and energy includes a discussion of introducing nanotechnology to the curricula of engineering students. The book also introduces significant current research topics in nanoscience and nanotechnology. It is a textbook for advanced undergraduate- and graduate-level students of nanotechnology, as well as a useful reference book for researchers and professional engineers working in the fields of macromolecular science, nanotechnology, and chemistry, especially those with an interest in energy and the environment, and the automotive industry.