For a fully 360° detection around a vehicle, novel automotive radar system concepts consist of up to eight radar sensors. The existing sensor-mounting areas, such as front grill or bumper corners would no longer be sufficient. Therefore, additional mounting positions such as B-pillars and side skirts have to be considered, where the radar can observe the side area of the vehicle. However, these new mounting positions usually offer significantly less space, than the established mounting areas. The solution is, to build separate miniature radar frontends that can be placed all over the vehicle and are connected to one central signal processing and power supply unit. Investigations for a miniature radar frontend have been done, based on RF360 low loss non-shrinkage low-temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) substrate. For the automotive radar band (76–81 GHz), an array antenna has been simulated, manufactured, and the radiation pattern has been measured. A first sensor with a miniature radar frontend based on an LTCC multilayer has been designed and manufactured.

We investigate the crystallization of amorphous Ni–P with near-eutectic composition, fabricated by electroless plating as a 10 µm thick continuous layer. Aiming to understand phase transformations that occur upon heating and, in particular, the microscopic mechanism of crystallization, we combine a variety of complimentary characterization techniques. DSC (differential scanning calorimetry) during isothermal heating reveals the crystallization kinetics. Conventional-, high-resolution-, and analytical TEM (transmission electron microscopy) and TEM-based electron diffraction provide high-spatial-resolution information on phase nucleation and spatial distribution of atom species, particularly the crystallography of the nucleating crystalline phases (Ni3P and Ni) and the spatial distribution of phosphorus in the partially and completely crystallized alloy. Our results indicate that crystallization proceeds by homogeneous nucleation of Ni3P grains. Internally, these exhibit a microstructure of radially oriented subgrains containing Ni nano-platelets in a specific crystallographic OR (orientation relationship) with Ni3P. However, the preferred Ni–Ni3P OR differs from those reported in the literature for similar material. Combining our observation on the structure and microstructure of partially and completely crystallized Ni–P with the observed crystallization kinetics provides a deeper understanding of the microscopic mechanism of crystallization.

Among presolar SiC grains found in the Murchison carbonaceous meteorites (average size less than 0.5 μm) are very large grains, ranging in size up to 50 μm. We interpret 6Li excesses measured in eight of these grains as being the result of spallation reactions by Galactic cosmic rays during the time the grains spent in the interstellar medium before their incorporation into the meteorite. Derived interstellar exposure ages range from 40 My to 1 Gy, the highest values being consistent with theoretical expectations of interstellar grain lifetimes. Although six grains have almost identical C and Si isotopic compositions, their exposure ages are very different. This observation, combined with low trace element contents, and unusual grain sizes, raises fundamental questions about their stellar sources.

Knowledge about the age of presolar grains provides important insights into Galactic chemical evolution and the dynamics of grain formation and destruction processes in the Galaxy. Determination from the abundance of cosmic ray interaction products is straightforward, but in the past has suffered from uncertainties in correcting for recoil losses of spallation products. The problem is less serious in a class of large (tens of μm) grains. We describe the correction procedure and summarise results for He and Ne ages of presolar SiC ‘Jumbo’ grains that range from close to zero to ∼850 Myr, with the majority being less than 200 Myr. We also discuss the possibility of extending our approach to the majority of smaller SiC grains and explore possible contributions from trapping of cosmic rays.

Researchers from across the social sciences have found consistent deviations from the predictions of the canonical model of self-interest in hundreds of experiments from around the world. This research, however, cannot determine whether the uniformity results from universal patterns of human behavior or from the limited cultural variation available among the university students used in virtually all prior experimental work. To address this, we undertook a cross-cultural study of behavior in ultimatum, public goods, and dictator games in a range of small-scale societies exhibiting a wide variety of economic and cultural conditions. We found, first, that the canonical model – based on self-interest – fails in all of the societies studied. Second, our data reveal substantially more behavioral variability across social groups than has been found in previous research. Third, group-level differences in economic organization and the structure of social interactions explain a substantial portion of the behavioral variation across societies: the higher the degree of market integration and the higher the payoffs to cooperation in everyday life, the greater the level of prosociality expressed in experimental games. Fourth, the available individual-level economic and demographic variables do not consistently explain game behavior, either within or across groups. Fifth, in many cases experimental play appears to reflect the common interactional patterns of everyday life.

We would like to thank the commentators for their generous comments, valuable insights and helpful suggestions. We begin this response by discussing the selfishness axiom and the importance of the preferences, beliefs, and constraints framework as a way of modeling some of the proximate influences on human behavior. Next, we broaden the discussion to ultimate-level (that is evolutionary) explanations, where we review and clarify gene-culture coevolutionary theory, and then tackle the possibility that evolutionary approaches that exclude culture might be sufficient to explain the data. Finally, we consider various methodological and epistemological concerns expressed by our commentators.

Patients with congenitally corrected transposition are at risk of right ventricular dysfunction and failure. With this in mind, we examined 13 patients with congenitally corrected transposition, 7 not having undergone surgery, and 6 after physiological repair, comparing them with 6 healthy subjects matched for age and sex, using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, at rest and during dobutamine stress, in order to determine regional and global right ventricular response to stress.

At rest, the patients had significantly decreased overall wall motion compared to their healthy peers (7.2 ± 0.5, versus 9.8 ± 0.4 mm). During infusion of dobutamine, overall wall motion increased to 12.8 ± 0.4 mm in the healthy subjects, versus 8.8 ± 1.0 mm in patients. At the regional level, significant differences in mural motion were found between patients and controls in the anterior (9.5 ± 1.1, versus 13.2 ± 0.6 mm), posterior (10.2 ± 1.6, versus 13.2 ± 0.8 mm), and septal segments (5.0 ± 0.8, versus 11.2 ± 0.6 mm).

At rest, overall mural thickening in patients was similar to that of controls, but significantly less in patients during stress. During dobutamine stress, patients showed significantly less regional wall thickening than controls, particularly in the septal (2.7 ± 0.6, versus 6.0 ± 0.4 mm, respectively) and in the anterior segments (4.2 ± 0.6, versus 7.8 ± 0.6 mm, respectively). Right ventricular ejection fraction strongly correlated with mural motion and thickening, both at rest and during stress.

Abnormal regional function in the systemic morphologically right ventricle may occur in patients with congenitally corrected transposition, which strongly correlates with right ventricular ejection fraction. Our findings support the hypothesis that, in patients with congenitally corrected transposition, ischemia of the right ventricular myocardium contributes to the development of right ventricular dysfunction.

This work presents data on damage evolution, volume expansion and etching behavior of LiNbO3 irradiated with Ar+-ions as a function of irradiation and etching conditions. Single crystals of x- and z-cut LiNbO3 were irradiated at room temperature and 15 K using Ar-ions with energies between 60 and 600 keV and ion fluences between 5 × 1012 and 1 × 1015 cm-2. The damage formation investigated with RBS channeling analysis depends on the crystal cut as well as on the irradiation temperature. Irradiation of z-cut material at 300 K causes complete amorphization at 0.4 dpa (displacements per target atom). In contrast 0.27 dpa are sufficient to amorphize the x-cut LiNbO3. Irradiation at 15 K reduces the number of displacements per atom necessary for amorphization to 0.18 dpa. To study the etching behavior ∼500 nm thick amorphous layers were generated via multiple irradiations with Ar+-ions. Etching was performed in HF-solution of different concentration and at different temperatures. The influence of the irradiation and etching conditions on damage formation and etching of LiNbO3 is discussed. In conclusion, negligible etching of the perfect crystal, high etching rates and high contrast of Ion Beam Enhanced Etching (IBEE) allow the realization of high aspect ratio microstructures in LiNbO3.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2004 in Savannah, Georgia, USA, August 1–5, 2004.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2004 in Savannah, Georgia, USA, August 1–5, 2004.

The development of ‘quantitative’ high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (QHRTEM) has led to considerable progress in analyzing and understanding the atomistic structure of grain boundaries and heterointerfaces, which often control relevant macroscopic properties of materials. The following results of recent experimental studies and the comparison of these results with atomistic modeling demonstrate the strength of QHRTEM:

1.Grain Boundaries in SrTiO3. Some technical applications of SrTiO3 ceramics rely on special electric properties of this material, which originate from segregation of electrically active point defects to grain boundaries. QHRTEM can substantially contribute to understanding the correlation between the atomistic structure of grain boundaries and the segregation of point defects to these interfaces. As an example for a grain boundary structure solved by QHRTEM, FIGs. la and b present an experimental HRTEM image of the Σ= 3, (111) grain boundary in SrTiO3 and the corresponding atomistic structure as obtained by QHRTEM.

How stable are Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells? CuInSe2 is known also as an ionic Cu conductor and the Cu-In-Se system has a rich phase diagram. Two stability-related problems are treated from a thermodynamic point of view: -a- Cu migration, -b- phase segregation. We show how Cu migration imparts self-stabilization on the system. Based on recently reported results on the room temperature phase diagram of CuInSe2, we explain why an overlayer of an ordered vacancy compound (OVC) is not to be expected to appear as a separate phase, even though the surface composition corresponds to that of the I-III3V5 OVC compound.

The accommodation of lattice mismatch is studied in Ge0.15Si0.85 layers grown epitaxially on {111}-oriented Si substrates by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) at 1100°C. Weak beam dark field microscopy reveals a regular misfit dislocation network, which resembles the honeycomb network of edge-type dislocations anticipated by the O-lattice theory. In contrast to the latter, however, the real network exhibits extended nodes where the misfit dislocations dissociate into misfit partial dislocations. Between the partials, high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) reveals intrinsic and extrinsic stacking faults. Owing to the presence of these stacking faults, three different atomistic structures of the GeSi/Si interface coexist and compete for the interfacial area according to their energy. The observed configuration is shown to minimize the total energy of the interface.