Matching Items (109)
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Description
This study investigates how the patient-provider relationship between lesbian, gay, and bisexual women and their healthcare providers influences their access to, utilization of, and experiences within healthcare environments. Nineteen participants, ages 18 to 34, were recruited using convenience and snowball sampling. Interviews were conducted inquiring about their health history and

This study investigates how the patient-provider relationship between lesbian, gay, and bisexual women and their healthcare providers influences their access to, utilization of, and experiences within healthcare environments. Nineteen participants, ages 18 to 34, were recruited using convenience and snowball sampling. Interviews were conducted inquiring about their health history and their experiences within the healthcare system in the context of their sexual orientation. The data collected from these interviews was used to create an analysis of the healthcare experiences of those who identify as queer. Although the original intention of the project was to chronicle the experiences of LGB women specifically, there were four non-binary gender respondents who contributed interviews. In an effort to not privilege any orientation over another, the respondents were collectively referred to as queer, given the inclusive and an encompassing nature of the term. The general conclusion of this study is that respondents most often experienced heterosexism rather than outright homophobia when accessing healthcare. If heterosexism was present within the healthcare setting, it made respondents feel uncomfortable with their providers and less likely to inform them of their sexuality even if it was medically relevant to their health outcomes. Gender, race, and,socioeconomic differences also had an effect on the patient-provider relationship. Non-binary respondents acknowledged the need for inclusion of more gender options outside of male or female on the reporting forms often seen in medical offices. By doing so, medical professionals are acknowledging their awareness and knowledge of people outside of the binary gender system, thus improving the experience of these patients. While race and socioeconomic status were less relevant to the context of this study, it was found that these factors have an affect on the patient-provider relationship. There are many suggestions for providers to improve the experiences of queer patients within the healthcare setting. This includes nonverbal indications of acknowledgement and acceptance, such as signs in the office that indicate it to be a queer friendly space. This will help in eliminating the fear and miscommunication that can often happen when a queer patient sees a practitioner for the first time. In addition, better education on medically relevant topics to queer patients, is necessary in order to eliminate disparities in health outcomes. This is particularly evident in trans health, where specialized education is necessary in order to decrease poor health outcomes in trans patients. Future directions of this study necessitate a closer look on how race and socioeconomic status have an effect on a queer patient's relationship with their provider.
Created2016-05
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Description
Netflix has positioned itself at the forefront of the future of television with its original programming, which has been rolled out in greater and more frequent amounts just in the last couple of years. The streaming service has already experimented with creativity in ways most other shows and creators haven't,

Netflix has positioned itself at the forefront of the future of television with its original programming, which has been rolled out in greater and more frequent amounts just in the last couple of years. The streaming service has already experimented with creativity in ways most other shows and creators haven't, playing with the pacing of overall seasons as well as the length of episodes. So, too, Netflix has been at the forefront of increasing visibility for minority characters on television. Many of its shows incorporate racially diverse casts and depict lots of LGBTQ characters, a refreshingly realistic view of the world that many of its viewers have always lived in but haven't yet witnessed on television. Visibility and representation are critical concepts for analyzing minority characters on television. It is important for diverse characters to be seen, first and foremost, but also to be seen in positive or at least realistic lights. Care must be taken to avoid fulfilling stereotypes or tropes, and attention must be paid to what has happened to other characters who have come before. However, many of Netflix's portrayals of these characters, particularly bisexual characters, leave much to be desired. With the original dramas House of Cards, Hemlock Grove, Orange is the New Black, and Sense8, all of which include characters who identify as or behave bisexually, Netflix has been reluctant to use the specific word bisexual to describe characters, and many don't even identify their sexuality with a synonym for the term. Many of the bisexual characters that I identified died or were killed on the shows, and nearly all of them fulfilled stereotypes or tropes in some way. There were multiple scenes of threesomes or other distinctly kinky sexual encounters, which served to exoticize bisexuality and distance it from the more normatively viewed identities of heterosexuality and homosexuality. Ultimately, while Netflix's original programming has offered increased visibility to bisexual characters, it has yet to reflect the real community it seeks to portray. In particular, Netflix's refusal to label characters as bisexual is frustrating and limiting. It can be argued that this is a progressive move toward more ideas of sexual fluidity and a post-modern lack of sexual labels, but there are not enough depictions of identified bisexual characters on television yet for this to make sense. Until bisexual characters and their identities are not invisibilized or stigmatized, more work has to be done to ensure that bisexual people are represented fairly and accurately on television and in all media.
Created2016-05
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Description
The continued rise of temperatures and extreme heat events globally is contributing to increases in mortality and morbidity in every region of the world. Urban areas are experiencing the combined effects of anthropogenic climate change and the urban heat island effect, exacerbating the risks associated with heat for urban residents.

The continued rise of temperatures and extreme heat events globally is contributing to increases in mortality and morbidity in every region of the world. Urban areas are experiencing the combined effects of anthropogenic climate change and the urban heat island effect, exacerbating the risks associated with heat for urban residents. In response, cities must make every effort to adapt, pursuing engagement in high-quality planning processes and implementing robust sets of strategies to mitigate and manage the heat. Cities are shaped by networks of plans, however, the process of systematically evaluating these plans has focused on individual plans or plan types when assessing their quality. This study combines qualitative plan quality evaluation and semi-structured interviews to assess how Vienna’s network of plans addresses heat. Two clear divides emerge when analyzing the plan network; direction-setting principles are included more often than others, and mitigation strategies are more prevalent than management strategies. These results, which are consistent across the broader plan quality evaluation literature, illuminate a clear path for Vienna to continuously improve their planning process and effectively respond to heat.
ContributorsLeyba, Bryan (Author) / Meerow, Sara (Thesis advisor) / Damyanovic, Doris (Committee member) / Hondula, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
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Description
In this dissertation, various characterization techniques have been used to investigate many aspects of the properties of III-nitride materials and devices for optoelectronic applications.

The first part of this work is focused on the evolution of microstructures of BAlN thin films. The films were grown by flow-modulated epitaxy at 1010

In this dissertation, various characterization techniques have been used to investigate many aspects of the properties of III-nitride materials and devices for optoelectronic applications.

The first part of this work is focused on the evolution of microstructures of BAlN thin films. The films were grown by flow-modulated epitaxy at 1010 oC, with B/(B+Al) gas-flow ratios ranging from 0.06 to 0.18. The boron content obtained from X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns ranges from x = 0.02 to 0.09, while Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) measures x = 0.06 to 0.16. Transmission electron microscopy indicates the sole presence of the wurtzite crystal structure in the BAlN films, and a tendency towards twin formation and finer microstructure for B/(B+Al) gas-flow ratios greater than 0.15. The RBS data suggest that the incorporation of B is highly efficient, while the XRD data indicate that the epitaxial growth may be limited by a solubility limit in the crystal phase at about 9%. Electron energy loss spectroscopy has been used to profile spatial variations in the composition of the films. It has also located point defects in the films with nanometer resolution. The defects are identified as B and Al interstitials and N vacancies by comparison of the observed energy thresholds with results of density functional theory calculations.

The second part of this work investigates dislocation clusters observed in thick InxGa1-xN films with 0.07 ≤ x ≤ 0.12. The clusters resemble baskets with a higher indium content at their interior. Threading dislocations at the basket boundaries are of the misfit edge type, and their separation is consistent with misfit strain relaxation due the difference in indium content between the baskets and the surrounding matrix. The base of the baskets exhibits no observable misfit dislocations connected to the threading dislocations, and often no net displacements like those due to stacking faults. It is argued that the origin of these threading dislocation arrays is associated with misfit dislocations at the basal plane that dissociate, forming stacking faults. When the stacking faults form simultaneously satisfying the crystal symmetry, the sum of their translation vectors does add up to zero, consistent with our experimental observations.
ContributorsWang, Shuo, Ph.D (Author) / Ponce, Fernando A. (Thesis advisor) / Menéndez, Jose (Committee member) / Rez, Peter (Committee member) / McCartney, Martha (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
This dissertation describes fundamental studies of hollow carbon nanostructures, which may be used as electrodes for practical energy storage applications such as batteries or supercapacitors. Electron microscopy is heavily utilized for the nanoscale characterization. To control the morphology of hollow carbon nanostructures, ZnO nanowires serve as sacrificial templates. The first

This dissertation describes fundamental studies of hollow carbon nanostructures, which may be used as electrodes for practical energy storage applications such as batteries or supercapacitors. Electron microscopy is heavily utilized for the nanoscale characterization. To control the morphology of hollow carbon nanostructures, ZnO nanowires serve as sacrificial templates. The first part of this dissertation focuses on the optimization of synthesis parameters and the scale-up production of ZnO nanowires by vapor transport method. Uniform ZnO nanowires with 40 nm width can be produced by using 1100 °C reaction temperature and 20 sccm oxygen flow rate, which are the two most important parameters.

The use of ethanol as carbon source with or without water steam provides uniform carbonaceous deposition on ZnO nanowire templates. The amount of as-deposited carbonaceous material can be controlled by reaction temperature and reaction time. Due to the catalytic property of ZnO surface, the thicknesses of carbonaceous layers are typically in nanometers. Different methods to remove the ZnO templates are explored, of which hydrogen reduction at temperatures higher than 700 °C is most efficient. The ZnO templates can also be removed under ethanol environment, but the temperatures need to be higher than 850 °C for practical use.

Characterizations of hollow carbon nanofibers show that the hollow carbon nanostructures have a high specific surface area (>1100 m2/g) with the presence of mesopores (~3.5 nm). The initial data on energy storage as electrodes of electrochemical double layer capacitors show that high specific capacitance (> 220 F/g) can be obtained, which is related to the high surface area and unique porous hollow structure with a thin wall.
ContributorsSong, Yian (Author) / Liu, Jingyue (Committee member) / Smith, David (Committee member) / McCartney, Martha (Committee member) / Chen, Tingyong (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
Because of their favorable ionic and/or electronic conductivity, non-stoichiometric oxides are utilized for energy storage, energy conversion, sensing, catalysis, gas separation, and information technologies, both potential and commercialized. Charge transport in these materials is influenced strongly by grain boundaries, which exhibit fluctuations in composition, chemistry and atomic structure within Ångstroms

Because of their favorable ionic and/or electronic conductivity, non-stoichiometric oxides are utilized for energy storage, energy conversion, sensing, catalysis, gas separation, and information technologies, both potential and commercialized. Charge transport in these materials is influenced strongly by grain boundaries, which exhibit fluctuations in composition, chemistry and atomic structure within Ångstroms or nanometers. Here, studies are presented that elucidate the interplay between macroscopic electrical conductivity, microscopic character, and local composition and electronic structure of grain boundaries in polycrystalline ceria-based (CeO2) solid solutions. AC impedance spectroscopy is employed to measure macroscopic electrical conductivity of grain boundaries, and electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) in the aberration-correction scanning transmission electron microscope (AC-STEM) is used to quantify local composition and electronic structure. Electron diffraction orientation imaging microscopy is employed to assess microscopic grain boundary character, and links these macro- and nanoscopic techniques across length scales.

A model system, CaxCe1-xO2-x-δ, is used to systematically investigate relationships between nominal Ca2+ concentration, grain boundary ionic conductivity, microscale character, and local solute concentration. Grain boundary conductivity varied by several orders of magnitude over the composition range, and assessment of grain boundary character highlighted the critical influence of local composition on conductivity. Ceria containing Gd3+ and Pr3+/4+ was also investigated following previous theoretical work predicting superior ionic conductivity relative to state-of-the-art GdxCe1-xO2-x/2-δ. The grain boundary conductivity was nearly 100 times greater than expected and a factor four enrichment of Pr concentration was observed at the grain boundary, which suggested electronic conduction that was cited as the origin of the enhanced conductivity. This finding inspired the development of two EELS-based experimental approaches to elucidate the effect of Pr enrichment on grain boundary conductivity. One employed ultra-high energy resolution (~10 meV) monochromated EELS to characterize Pr inter-bandgap electronic states. Alternatively, STEM nanodiffraction orientation imaging coupled with AC-STEM EELS was employed to estimate the composition of the entire grain boundary population in a polycrystalline material. These compositional data were the input to a thermodynamic model used to predict electrical properties of the grain boundary population. These results suggest improved DC ionic conduction and enhanced electronic conduction under AC conditions.
ContributorsBowman, William John (Author) / Crozier, Peter A. (Thesis advisor) / Chan, Candace K. (Committee member) / McCartney, Martha (Committee member) / Sieradzki, Karl (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
GaN and AlGaN have shown great potential in next-generation power and RF electronics. However, these devices are limited by reliability issues such as leakage current and current collapse that result from surface and interface states on GaN and AlGaN. This dissertation, therefore, examined these electronic states, focusing on the following

GaN and AlGaN have shown great potential in next-generation power and RF electronics. However, these devices are limited by reliability issues such as leakage current and current collapse that result from surface and interface states on GaN and AlGaN. This dissertation, therefore, examined these electronic states, focusing on the following two points:

First, the surface electronic state configuration was examined with regards to the polarization bound 1013 charges/cm2 that increases with aluminum content. This large bound charge requires compensation either externally by surface states or internally by the space charge regions as relates to band bending. In this work, band bending was measured after different surface treatments of GaN and AlGaN to determine the effects of specific surface states on the electronic state configuration. Results showed oxygen-terminated N-face GaN, Ga-face GaN, and Ga-face Al0.25Ga0.75N surface were characterized by similar band bending regardless of the polarization bound charge, suggesting a Fermi level pinning state ~0.4-0.8 eV below the conduction band minimum. On oxygen-free Ga-face GaN, Al0.15Ga0.85N, Al0.25Ga0.75N, and Al0.35Ga0.65N, band bending increased slightly with aluminum content and thus did not exhibit the same pinning behavior; however, there was still significant compensating charge on these surfaces (~1013 charges/cm2). This charge is likely related to nitrogen vacancies and/or gallium dangling bonds.

In addition, this wozrk investigated the interface electronic state configuration of dielectric/GaN and AlGaN interfaces with regards to deposition conditions and aluminum content. Specifically, oxygen plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposited (PEALD) was used to deposit SiO2. Growth temperature was shown to influence the film quality, where room temperature deposition produced the highest quality films in terms of electrical breakdown. In addition, the valence band offsets (VBOs) appeared to decrease with the deposition temperature, which likely related to an electric field across the Ga2O3 interfacial layer. VBOs were also determined with respect to aluminum content at the PEALD-SiO2/AlxGa1-xN interface, giving 3.0, 2.9, 2.9, and 2.8 eV for 0%, 15%, 25%, and 35% aluminum content, respectively—with corresponding conduction band offsets of 2.5, 2.2, 1.9, and 1.8 eV. This suggests the largest difference manifests in the conduction band, which is in agreement with the charge neutrality level model.
ContributorsEller, Brianna (Author) / Nemanich, Robert J (Thesis advisor) / Chowdhury, Srabanti (Committee member) / McCartney, Martha (Committee member) / Ponce, Fernando (Committee member) / Smith, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
Group III-nitride semiconductors have been commercially used in the fabrication of light-emitting diodes and laser diodes, covering the ultraviolet-visible-infrared spectral range and exhibit unique properties suitable for modern optoelectronic applications. InGaN ternary alloys have energy band gaps ranging from 0.7 to 3.4 eV. It has a great potential in

Group III-nitride semiconductors have been commercially used in the fabrication of light-emitting diodes and laser diodes, covering the ultraviolet-visible-infrared spectral range and exhibit unique properties suitable for modern optoelectronic applications. InGaN ternary alloys have energy band gaps ranging from 0.7 to 3.4 eV. It has a great potential in the application for high efficient solar cells. AlGaN ternary alloys have energy band gaps ranging from 3.4 to 6.2 eV. These alloys have a great potential in the application of deep ultra violet laser diodes. However, there are still many issues with these materials that remain to be solved. In this dissertation, several issues concerning structural, electronic, and optical properties of III-nitrides have been investigated using transmission electron microscopy. First, the microstructure of InxGa1-xN (x = 0.22, 0.46, 0.60, and 0.67) films grown by metal-modulated epitaxy on GaN buffer /sapphire substrates is studied. The effect of indium composition on the structure of InGaN films and strain relaxation is carefully analyzed. High luminescence intensity, low defect density, and uniform full misfit strain relaxation are observed for x = 0.67. Second, the properties of high-indium-content InGaN thin films using a new molecular beam epitaxy method have been studied for applications in solar cell technologies. This method uses a high quality AlN buffer with large lattice mismatch that results in a critical thickness below one lattice parameter. Finally, the effect of different substrates and number of gallium sources on the microstructure of AlGaN-based deep ultraviolet laser has been studied. It is found that defects in epitaxial layer are greatly reduced when the structure is deposited on a single crystal AlN substrate. Two gallium sources in the growth of multiple quantum wells active region are found to cause a significant improvement in the quality of quantum well structures.
ContributorsWei, Yong (Author) / Ponce, Fernando (Thesis advisor) / Chizmeshya, Andrew (Committee member) / McCartney, Martha (Committee member) / Menéndez, Jose (Committee member) / Yu, Hongbin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Description
Polycrystalline magnetite thin films were deposited on large area polymer substrates using aqueous solution based spin-spray deposition (SSD). This technique involved the hydrolysis of precursor salt solutions at low temperatures (70-100°C). The fundamental mechanisms and pathways in crystallization and evolution of the film microstructures were studied as a function of

Polycrystalline magnetite thin films were deposited on large area polymer substrates using aqueous solution based spin-spray deposition (SSD). This technique involved the hydrolysis of precursor salt solutions at low temperatures (70-100°C). The fundamental mechanisms and pathways in crystallization and evolution of the film microstructures were studied as a function of reactant chemistry and reactor conditions (rotation rate, flow rates etc.). A key feature of this method was the ability to constantly supply fresh solutions throughout deposition. Solution flow due to substrate rotation ensured that reactant depleted solutions were spun off. This imparted a limited volume, near two-dimensional restriction on the growth process. Film microstructure was studied as a function of process parameters such as liquid flow rate, nebulizer configuration, platen rotation rate and solution chemistry. It was found that operating in the micro-droplet regime of deposition was a crucial factor in controlling the microstructure.

Film porosity and substrate adhesion were linked to the deposition rate, which in-turn depended on solution chemistry. Films exhibited a wide variety of hierarchically organized microstructures often spanning length scales from tens-of-nanometers to a few microns. These included anisotropic morphologies such as nanoplates and nanoblades, that were generally unexpected from magnetite (a high symmetry cubic solid). Time resolved studies showed that the reason for complex hierarchy in microstructure was the crystallization via non-classical pathways. SSD of magnetite films involved formation of precursor phases that subsequently underwent solid-state transformations and nanoparticle self-assembly. These precursor phases were identified and possible reaction mechanisms for the formation of magnetite were proposed. A qualitative description of the driving forces for self-assembly was presented.
ContributorsVadari Venkata, Kaushik Sridhar (Author) / Petuskey, William (Thesis advisor) / Carpenter, Ray (Committee member) / McCartney, Martha (Committee member) / Chan, Candace (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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With the high demand for faster and smaller wireless communication devices, manufacturers have been pushed to explore new materials for smaller and faster transistors. One promising class of transistors is high electron mobility transistors (HEMT). AlGaAs/GaAs HEMTs have been shown to perform well at high power and high frequencies.

With the high demand for faster and smaller wireless communication devices, manufacturers have been pushed to explore new materials for smaller and faster transistors. One promising class of transistors is high electron mobility transistors (HEMT). AlGaAs/GaAs HEMTs have been shown to perform well at high power and high frequencies. However, AlGaN/GaN HEMTs have been gaining more attention recently due to their comparatively higher power densities and better high frequency performance. Nevertheless, these devices have experienced truncated lifetimes. It is assumed that reducing defect densities in these materials will enable a more direct study of the failure mechanisms in these devices. In this work we present studies done to reduce interfacial oxygen at N-polar GaN/GaN interfaces, growth conditions for InAlN barrier layer, and microanalysis of a partial InAlN-based HEMT. Additionally, the depth of oxidation of an InAlN layer on a gate-less InAlN/GaN metal oxide semiconductor HEMT (MOSHEMT) was investigated. Measurements of electric fields in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with and without field plates are also presented.
ContributorsMcConkie, Thomas O. (Author) / Smith, David J. (Thesis advisor) / McCartney, Martha (Committee member) / Ponce, Fernando A. (Committee member) / Saraniti, Marco (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018