Transforming Marketing Education of the Future: The Role of Intelligent Agent Technologies (IATs) in Enhancing Student Learning

This conceptual paper introduces IATs and discusses how such intelligent and interactive applications can translate into better education environment for marketing curriculum, particularly marketing research. We present a conceptual model based on extant literature. We present some initial test of our conceptual model of IAT usage in marketing education in a marketing research class

High Breakdown Strength, Multilayer Ceramics for Compact Pulsed Power Applications

Advanced ceramics are being developed for use in large area, high voltage devices in order to achieve high specific energy densities (greater than 10^6/ J/m^3/) and physical size reduction. Initial materials based on slip cast TiO2 exhibited a high bulk breakdown strength (BDS greater than 300 kV/cm) and high permittivity with low dispersion (epsilon approximately equal to 100). However, strong area and thickness dependencies were noted. To increase the BDS, multilayer dielectric compositions are being developed based on glass/TiO2 composites. The addition of glass increases the density (approximately equal to 99.8% theoretical), forms a continuous grain boundary phase, and also allows the use of high temperature processes to change the physical shape of the dielectric. The permittivity can also be manipulated since the volume fraction and connectivity of the glassy phase can be readily shifted. Results from this study on bulk breakdown of TiO2 multilayer structures with an area of 2 cm^2/ and 0.1 cm thickness have measured 650 kV/cm. Furthermore, a strong dependence of breakdown strength and permittivity has been observed and correlated with microstructure and the glass composition. This paper presents the interactive effects of manipulation of these variables

Radiometric validation of age, growth, and longevity for the blackgill rockfish (Sebastes melanostomus)

As nearshore fish populations decline, many commercial fishermen have shifted fishing effort to deeper continental slope habitats to target fishes for which biological information is limited. One such fishery that developed in the northeastern Pacific Ocean in the early 1980s was for the blackgill rockfish (Sebastes melanostomus), a deep-dwelling (300−800 m) species that congregates over rocky pinnacles, mainly from southern California to southern Oregon. Growth zone-derived age estimates from otolith thin sections were compared to ages obtained from the radioactive disequilibria of 210Pb, in relation to its parent, 226Ra, in otolith cores of blackgill rockfish. Age estimates were validated up to 41 years, and a strong pattern of agreement supported a longevity exceeding 90 years. Age and length data fitted to the von Bertalanffy growth function indicated that blackgill rockfish are slow-growing (k= 0.040 females, 0.068 males) and that females grow slower than males, but reach a greater length. Age at 50% maturity, derived from previously published length-at-maturity estimates, was 17 years for males and 21 years for females. The results of this study agree with general life history traits already recognized for many Sebastes species, such as long life, slow growth, and late age at maturation. These traits may undermine the sustainability of blackgill rockfish populations when heavy fishing pressure, such as that which occurred in the 1980s, is applied

238U-230Th-226Ra Disequilibria Constraints on the Magmatic Evolution of the Cumbre Vieja Volcanics on La Palma, Canary Islands

A suite of 48 samples, including both historical and prehistoric lavas and some plutonic rocks, have been analysed from the Cumbre Vieja rift, La Palma, Canary Islands. Additionally, mineral–melt partition coefficients have been measured for clinopyroxene, plagioclase, amphibole, titanite and apatite in selected rocks. The lavas range from basanite to phonolite (SiO2 = 41·2–57·5 wt % and MgO = 10–0·8 wt %) in composition and form coherent, curvilinear major and trace element arrays in variation diagrams, irrespective of eruption age. The mafic lavas have typical ocean island incompatible trace element patterns and Sr, Nd and Pb isotope compositions show little variation but have a HIMU-type character. Generation of the parental magmas is inferred to have involved ∼4% dynamic melting of a garnet lherzolite source that may have previously been metasomatized by melts derived from a recycled mafic component containing residual phlogopite. The major process of differentiation to phonotephrite involved fractional crystallization of basanitic magmas that evolved along the same liquid line of descent under similar pressure–temperature conditions. Numerical simulations using the MELTS algorithm suggest that this occurred across a temperature interval from c. 1320 to 950°C at 400 MPa and an oxygen fugacity equivalent to quartz–fayalite–magnetite (QFM), with an initial H2O content of 0·3 wt %. The later stages of differentiation (<5 wt % MgO) were dominated by mixing with partial melts of young syenites formed from earlier magma batches. All of the lavas are characterized by 230Th and 226Ra excesses and (230Th/238U) decreases with decreasing Nb/U and increasing SiO2, with no accompanying change in (226Ra/230Th). To explain the observations, we propose a model in which there was a significant role for amphibole, and more importantly accessory titanite, in decre'asing Nb/U, Ce/Pb and Th/U ratios and increasing or buffering (226Ra/230Th) ratios during the later stages of differentiation and magma mixing. These processes all occurred over a few millennia in small magma batches that were repeatedly emplaced within the mid-crust of the Cumbre Vieja rift system prior to rapid transport to the surface

Decoherence due to contacts in ballistic nanostructures

The active region of a ballistic nanostructure is an open quantum-mechanical system, whose nonunitary evolution (decoherence) towards a nonequilibrium steady state is determined by carrier injection from the contacts. The purpose of this paper is to provide a simple theoretical description of the contact-induced decoherence in ballistic nanostructures, which is established within the framework of the open systems theory. The active region's evolution in the presence of contacts is generally non-Markovian. However, if the contacts' energy relaxation due to electron-electron scattering is sufficiently fast, then the contacts can be considered memoryless on timescales coarsened over their energy relaxation time, and the evolution of the current-limiting active region can be considered Markovian. Therefore, we first derive a general Markovian map in the presence of a memoryless environment, by coarse-graining the exact short-time non-Markovian dynamics of an abstract open system over the environment memory-loss time, and we give the requirements for the validity of this map. We then introduce a model contact-active region interaction that describes carrier injection from the contacts for a generic two-terminal ballistic nanostructure. Starting from this model interaction and using the Markovian dynamics derived by coarse-graining over the effective memory-loss time of the contacts, we derive the formulas for the nonequilibrium steady-state distribution functions of the forward and backward propagating states in the nanostructure's active region. On the example of a double-barrier tunneling structure, the present approach yields an I-V curve with all the prominent resonant features. The relationship to the Landauer-B\"{u}ttiker formalism is also discussed, as well as the inclusion of scattering.Comment: Published versio

Measurement of the Dielectric Strength of Titanium Dioxide Ceramics

Titanium dioxide ceramics (TiO2) are candidate materials for high energy density pulsed power devices. Experiments to quantify the dielectric strength of TiO2 have been performed on a limited number of unoptimized samples. A high voltage test set was constructed to test the titanium dioxide. All samples had a relative dielectric constant of 100, all samples were of 3 mm nominal thickness, and all tests were performed in water dielectric to reduce the effect of the triple point field enhancement at the electrode edge. Both single layer and laminated samples were tested and the breakdown field strengths were recorded. Voltage risetimes varied slightly around 400 ns depending upon the size of the test sample area. Areas varied from \u3c 0.2 cm^2 to \u3e 100 cm^2. Both single layer and laminated material showed a strong area effect where the dielectric strength dropped off as area to the -0.17 and -0.1 power respectively. Effective areas of the electrodes were calculated using a field solver program. Breakdown field strengths varied from 469 kV/cm to 124 kV/cm in the single layer specimens, and from 556 kV/cm to 261 kV/cm in the laminates over an increasing area range. Energy density calculations for the material show that at areas of approximately 100 cm^2 the laminates can store nearly 3 times more energy than single layers

Monitoring Ion Channel Function In Real Time Through Quantum Decoherence

In drug discovery research there is a clear and urgent need for non-invasive detection of cell membrane ion channel operation with wide-field capability. Existing techniques are generally invasive, require specialized nano structures, or are only applicable to certain ion channel species. We show that quantum nanotechnology has enormous potential to provide a novel solution to this problem. The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre in nano-diamond is currently of great interest as a novel single atom quantum probe for nanoscale processes. However, until now, beyond the use of diamond nanocrystals as fluorescence markers, nothing was known about the quantum behaviour of a NV probe in the complex room temperature extra-cellular environment. For the first time we explore in detail the quantum dynamics of a NV probe in proximity to the ion channel, lipid bilayer and surrounding aqueous environment. Our theoretical results indicate that real-time detection of ion channel operation at millisecond resolution is possible by directly monitoring the quantum decoherence of the NV probe. With the potential to scan and scale-up to an array-based system this conclusion may have wide ranging implications for nanoscale biology and drug discovery.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Bias‐dependent photoresponse of p+in GaAs/AlAs/GaAs diodes

We report photocollection efficiency measurements of p + in GaAs! AIAs!GaAs diodes fabricated on films grown by molecular beam epitaxy, Both the zero-bias and bias-dependent photocollection characteristics can be explained by assuming that the band discontinuity between AlAs and GaAs is mostly accommodated i.n the valence band

Basic Studies of III-IV High Efficiency Cell Components

The objective of the project is to raise the understanding of dark current mechanisms in GaAs-related solar cells to a level comparable to that of silicon cells. Motivation for this work arises from the observation that much of the progress in crystalline silicon cell performance has occurred as a result of a very deep knowledge of the physics controlling the cell’s dark current. Based on this knowledge, new cell structures evolved to suppress dominant dark current mechanisms. A comparable level of knowledge of GaAs cell device physics does not yet exist, but will be essential if cell performance near the thermodynamic limit is to be achieved