BACKGROUND In Switzerland, age is the predominant driver of solidarity transfers in risk adjustment (RA). Concerns have been voiced regarding growing imbalances in cost sharing between young and old insured due to demographic changes (larger fraction of elderly >65 years and rise in average age). Particularly young adults aged 19-25 with limited incomes have to shoulder increasing solidarity bu...

The toxic effects of inorganic mercury [Hg(II)] and methylmercury (MeHg) on the photosynthesis and population growth in a marine diatom Thalassiosira weissflogii were investigated using two methods: two-photon excitation fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) and flow cytometry (FCM). For photosynthesis, Hg(II) exposure increased the average chlorophyll fluorescence lifetime, whereas such increme...

We studied electromigration (EM) lifetimes and void growth at low cumulative failure probability. We carried out EM test in damascene Cu lines using sudden-death type test structures. Its cumulative failure probability ranges from 0.005 to 90%. To investigate the void growth behaviour, Cu microstructures was investigated. EM lifetime shows correlation with the void nucleation site and the void ...

Silicon carbide (SiC) is currently under development for high power bipolar devices such as insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). A major issue for these devices is the charge carrier lifetime, which, in the absence of structural defects such as dislocations, is influenced by point defects and their associated deep levels. These defects provide energy levels within the bandgap and may act...

This paper emphasizes that the furnace pressure, crucible rotation, and pulling rate have important effects on interstitial oxygen (Oi) concentrations micro-defects during growth in a Czochralski single-crystal silicon (CZ-Si) furnace. Since ingot influences minority carrier lifetime, different set-points of pressure rotation were controlled to achieve degrees Oi. The Oi content has positive co...

We have used transient terahertz photoconductivity measurements to assess the efficacy of two-temperature growth and core-shell encapsulation techniques on the electronic properties of GaAs nanowires. We demonstrate that two-temperature growth of the GaAs core leads to an almost doubling in charge-carrier mobility and a tripling of carrier lifetime. In addition, overcoating the GaAs core with a...

For brittle failures, the probability distribution of structural strength and lifetime are known to be Weibullian, in which case the knowledge of the mean and standard deviation suffices to determine the loading or time corresponding to a tolerable failure probability such as 10−6. Unfortunately, this is not so for quasibrittle structures, characterized by material inhomogeneities that are not ...

BACKGROUND Evidence from several populations suggests that war negatively impacts civilian nutrition, physical growth and overall health. This effect is often enduring or permanent, particularly if experienced early in life. AIM To assess whether the number of lifetime displacement experiences and being displaced in infancy were associated with adult height, sitting height, leg length and the...

The statistics of structural lifetime under constant load are related to the statistics of structural strength. The safety factors applied to structural strength must ensure failure probability no larger than 10 , which is beyond the means of direct verification by histogram testing. For perfectly brittle materials, extrapolation from the mean and variance to such a small tail probability is no...