The structure of octadecyl monolayers on the H-terminated Si(111) surface is investigated by molecular modeling simulations, using substitution percentages from 33.3% to 100% of the Si-H moieties by Sialkyl groups. In all calculations, two-dimensionally repeating boxes were used to mimic the modified surface. Calculations without this repeating box approach were shown to be unsuccessful. The results on the repeating boxes showed that only with a substitution percentage of ∼50% is there a good correlation between the structure of the monolayers as obtained from molecular modeling and the available experimental data. A variety of substitution patterns with a substitution percentage of 50% on the Si(111) surface were investigated, which showed that a zigzag-type pattern is most suitable to describe the structure of the layers. From the results of the investigations, an important conclusion for future experimental work is drawn. It is shown that the experimentally determined substitution percentage of 50-55% of the Si-H for Si-alkyl groups is close to the maximum value that can be reached on the H-terminated Si(111) surface.

A computational approach has been delineated to model alkyl monolayers on hydrogen-terminated silicon (111) surfaces by molecular mechanics calculations. The monolayers can be properly described by making use of two-dimensionally repeating boxes with minimally ∼30 alkyl chains. For two different substitution patterns on the Si surface, both with an overall substitution percentage of 50%, good agreement between the computational and the available experimental data (FT-IR, X-ray, ellipsometry) was found. It is shown that the thus formed layers are nearly stress-free and that different orientations of individual alkyl chains exist, which combined yield an overall uniformly ordered monolayer.

Abstract. A fully mechanistic model based on diffusion equations for gas transport in a flooded rice system is presented. The model has transport descriptions for various compartments in the water-saturated soil and within the plant. Plant parameters were estimated from published data and experiments independent of the validation experiment. An independent experiment is described in which the diffusion coefficient of sulfurhexafluoride (SF6) in water-saturated soil was determined. The model was validated by experiments in which transport of SF6 through soil and plant was monitored continuously by photoacoustics. The independent default settings could reasonably predict gas release dynamics in the soil-plant system. Calculated transmissivities and concentration gradients at the default settings show that transport within the soil was the most limiting step in this system, which explains why most gases are released via plantmediated transport. The root-shoot interface represents the major resistance for gas transport within the plant. A sensitivity analysis of the model showed that gas transport in such a system is highly sensitive to the estimation of the diffusion coefficient of SF6, which helps to understand diel patterns found for greenhouse gas emissions, and to the root distribution with depth. This can be understood from the calculated transmissivities. The model is less sensitive to changes in the resistance at the root-shoot interface and in the root fraction active in gas exchange. The model thus provides an understanding of limiting steps in gas transport, but quantitative predictions of in situ gas transport rates will be difficult given the plasticity of root distribution.

The video game market is a big part of the current popular media landscape and is growing rapidly. Developers of video games are keen to make use of a variety of historical pasts as this provides them with recognisable themes, settings or narrative frameworks. Video games can be seen as the manifestation of experiential learning theory: they provide a unique informal learning How to cite this book chapter:

A century ago, the 1918–19 influenza pandemic swept across the globe, taking the lives of over 50 million people. We use data from the Dutch civil registry to show which regions in the Netherlands were most affected by the 1918–19 pandemic. We do so for the entire 1918 year as well as the first, second, and third wave that hit the Netherlands in summer 1918, autumn 1918, and winter 1919. Our analyses show that excess mortality was highest in Oost-Brabant, Zuid-Limburg, Noord-Holland, and Drenthe, Groningen, and Overijssel, whereas excess mortality was low in Zuid-Beveland, the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, and the Achterhoek. Furthermore, neighboring municipalities resembled one another in how severely they were affected, but only for the second wave that hit the Netherlands in autumn 1918. This non-random spatial distribution of excess mortality in autumn 1918 suggests that regional differences affected the spread of the disease.

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Despite growing attention to the history of slavery in the Indian Ocean and Indonesian Archipelago worlds, the debate on the nature or characteristics of slavery in these regions has been left largely unsettled. Whereas some scholars emphasize the existence of harsh forms of hereditary slavery similar to those found in the Americas, others argue that the nature of slavery in Asia was urban, status-based, and milder than in the Atlantic world. This article explores case studies of slaves escaping in and around the Dutch East India Company (VOC) city of Cochin. Studying court records that bring to light the strategies and social networks of enslaved runaways provides new insights into the characteristics of slavery and the conditions of slaves in and around VOC-Cochin. The findings indicate that the social and everyday conditions under which slaves lived were highly diverse and shaped by the direct relations between slave and master, influenced by elements of trust, skill, and control. Relations of slavery nevertheless remained engrained by the recurrence of physical punishments and verbal threats, despite sometimes relatively open situations. This reminds us that easy dichotomies of “benign,” “Asian,” “household,” or “urban” versus “European,” “Atlantic,” or “plantation” slavery obscure as much as they reveal.