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Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often face challenges in social situations. Although designers and researchers explore the potential of digital (game-like) interventions, most interventions lack evidence in efficacy or proper design. The aim of this study is to explore the worldview and needs of the target users in their daily life context and convert them into authentic and lifelike personas and guidelines for design. To get insight in the user group's worldview and needs we conducted focus groups with children with ASD (n = 8), focus groups with parents (n = 6) and stakeholder interviews (n = 7). Different generative and exploratory methods were used during the interviews. We present the findings on the three main topics: everyday life, social skill training, and video games. The findings resulted in three authentic and lifelike personas. To develop a successful new game-like intervention the children's needs must be more explicitly addressed in the design. The user-centered approach makes clear that children with ASD have different goals to pursue then their parents and professionals.

The ATLAS Central Solenoid and its associated proximity cryogenics system are designed by KEK in collaboration with CERN. A number of tests and simulations are conducted in applying a new process control system to validate the cryogenics functionalities, the electrical powering scheme as well as the magnet control and safety systems.

High-performance Si thin-film transistors (TFTs) are fabricated inside a single, location-controlled grain with gate SiO2 deposited by electron cyclotron resonance plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (ECR-PECVD). The superior performance of the TFT suggest that the combination of the single grain Si TFT by mu-Czochralski with ECR-PECVD gate SiO2 is attractive for future system integration in active LCDs.

An approach to study the optical behavior of hydrogenated amorphous silicon solar cells with rough interfaces using computer modeling is presented. In this approach the descriptive haze parameters of a light scattering interface are related to the root mean square roughness of the interface. Using this approach we investigated the effect of front window contact roughness and back contact material on the optical properties of a single junction a-Si:H superstrate solar cell. The simulation results for a-Si:H solar cells with SnO[sub 2]:F as a front contact and ideal Ag, ZnO/Ag, and Al/Ag as a back contact are shown. For cells with an absorber layer thickness of 150-600 nm the simulations demonstrate that the gain in photogenerated current density due to the use of a textured superstrate is around 2.3 mA cm[sup -2] in comparison to solar cells with flat interfaces. The effect of the front and back contact roughness on the external quantum efficiency (QE) of the solar cell for different parts of the light spectrum was determined. The choice of the back contact strongly influences the QE and the absorption in the nonactive layers for the wavelengths above 650 nm. A practical Ag back contact can be successfully simulated by introducing a thin buffer layer between the n-type a-Si:H and Ag back contact, which has optical properties similar to Al, indicating that the actual reflection at the n-type a-Si:H/Ag interface is smaller than what is expected from the respective bulk optical parameters. In comparison to the practical Ag contact the QE of the cell can be strongly improved by using a ZnO layer at the Ag back contact or an ideal Ag contact. The photogenerated current densities for a solar cell with a 450 nm thick intrinsic a-Si:H layer with ZnO/Ag and ideal Ag are 16.7 and 17.3 mA cm[sup -2], respectively, compared to 14.4 mA cm[sup -2] for the practical Ag back contact. The effect of increasing the roughness of the contact interfaces was investigated for both... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study in which the experimental investigation of the photoresist etching rate in the afterglow of argon-oxygen microwave plasma was performed. Introduction to photoresist; Experimental setup; Results and discussion.

Investigates the effects of the radio frequency (rf) power level on the growth rate and quality of the hydrogenated amorphous silicon. Plasma deposition of hydrogenated amorphous silicon; Description of the SiH[sub4] plasma phenomena; Refractive index of hydrogenated amorphous silicon films deposited using pure silane at different rf power levels.

Examines the basic properties of hydrogenated amorphous silicon-germanium (a-SiGe:H) alloys deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition. Comparison between the optical band gap of a-SiGe:H and a-Si:H alloys; Analysis of the effect of postgrowth anneal on the optical and electrical properties of a-SiGe:H alloys; Correlation of the changes in the defect density with the hydrogen and germanium concentrations in the alloys and changes in the optical gap; Details of the measured values of the optical gap and photosensitivity with variation of the growth and annealing temperatures for a-SiGe alloys.