2,042 research outputs found
Organic Ring Oscillators with Sub-200 ns Stage Delay Based on a Solution-Processed p-type Semiconductor Blend
High-frequency ring oscillators with sub-microsecond stage delay fabricated from spin-coated films of a specially formulated small-molecule/host-polymer blend are reported. Contacts and interconnects are patterned by photolithography with plasma etching used for creating vias and removing excess material to reduce parasitic effects. The characteristics of transistors with 4.6 μm channel length scale linearly with channel width over the range 60�2160 μm. Model device parameters extracted using Silvaco's Universal Organic Thin Film Transistor (UOTFT) Model yield values of hole mobility increasing from 1.9 to 2.6 cm2 Vs�1 as gate voltage increased. Simulated and fabricated Vgs = 0 inverters predict that the technology is capable of fabricating 5-stage ring oscillators operating above 100 kHz. Initial designs operated mainly at frequencies in the range 250�300 kHz, due to smaller parasitic gate overlap capacitances and higher supply voltages than assumed in the simulations. A design incorporating graded inverter sizes operates at frequencies above 400 kHz with the best reaching 529 kHz. The corresponding stage delay of 189 ns is the shortest reported to date for a solution-processed p-type semiconductor and compares favorably with similar circuits based on evaporated small molecules. Significant further improvements are identified which could lead to the fabrication of digital circuits that operate at much higher bit rates than previously reported
Brane/flux annihilation transitions and nonperturbative moduli stabilization
By extending the calculation of Kahler moduli stabilization to account for an
embiggened antibrane, we reevaluate brane/flux annihilation in a warped throat
with one stabilized Kahler modulus. We find that depending on the relative size
of various fluxes three things can occur: the decay process proceeds
unhindered, the anti-D3-branes are forbidden to decay classically, or the
entire space decompactifies. Additionally, we show that the Kahler modulus
receives a contribution from the collective 3-brane tension. This allows for a
significant change in compactified volume during the transition and possibly
mitigates some fine tuning otherwise required to achieve large volume.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures, LaTeX. v2: references adde
Nonsupersymmetric brane vacua in stabilized compactifications
We derive the equations for the nonsupersymmetric vacua of D3-branes in the
presence of nonperturbative moduli stabilization in type IIB flux
compactifications, and solve and analyze them in the case of two particular
7-brane embeddings at the bottom of the warped deformed conifold. In the limit
of large volume and long throat, we obtain vacua by imposing a constraint on
the 7-brane embedding. These vacua fill out continuous spaces of higher
dimension than the corresponding supersymmetric vacua, and have negative
effective cosmological constant. Perturbative stability of these vacua is
possible but not generic. Finally, we argue that anti-D3-branes at the tip of
the conifold share the same vacua as D3-branes.Comment: 17 pages, 1 figure, LaTeX. v2: references added, typo fixed. v3:
version appearing in JHE
Quantifying the effects of acute hypoxic exposure on exercise performance and capacity: A systematic review and meta-regression
Objective: To quantify the effects of acute hypoxic exposure on exercise capacity and performance, which includes continuous and intermittent forms of exercise. Design: A systematic review was conducted with a three-level mixed effects meta-regression. The ratio of means method was used to evaluate main effects and moderators providing practical interpretations with percentage change. Data Sources: A systemic search was performed using 3 databases (Google scholar, PubMed and SPORTDiscus). Eligibility criteria for selecting studies: Inclusion was restricted to investigations that assessed exercise performance (time trials, sprint, and intermittent exercise tests) and capacity (time to exhaustion test (TTE)) with acute hypoxic (< 24 hrs) exposure and a normoxic comparator. Results: Eighty-two outcomes from 53 studies (N = 798) were included in this review. The results show an overall reduction in exercise performance/capacity -17.8 ± 3.9% (95% CI -22.8% to -11.0%), which was significantly moderated by -6.5 ± 0.9% per 1000 m altitude elevation (95% CI -8.2% to -4.8%) and oxygen saturation (-2.0 ± 0.4% 95% CI -2.9% to -1.2%). Time trial (-16.2 ± 4.3%; 95% CI -22.9% to -9%) and TTE (-44.5 ± 6.9%; 95% CI -51.3% to -36.7%) elicited a negative effect, whilst indicating a quadratic relationship between hypoxic magnitude and both TTE and TT performance. Furthermore, exercise < 2-min exhibited no ergolytic effect from acute hypoxia. Summary/ Conclusion: This review highlights the ergolytic effect of acute hypoxic exposure; which is curvilinear for TTE and TT performance with increasing hypoxic levels, but short-duration intermittent and sprint exercise seem to be unaffected
Dynamical Fine Tuning in Brane Inflation
We investigate a novel mechanism of dynamical tuning of a flat potential in
the open string landscape within the context of warped brane-antibrane
inflation in type IIB string theory. Because of competing effects between
interactions with the moduli stabilizing D7-branes in the warped throat and
anti-D3-branes at the tip, a stack of branes gives rise to a local minimum of
the potential, holding the branes high up in the throat. As branes successively
tunnel out of the local minimum to the bottom of the throat the potential
barrier becomes lower and is eventually replaced by a flat inflection point,
around which the remaining branes easily inflate. This dynamical flattening of
the inflaton potential reduces the need to fine tune the potential by hand, and
also leads to successful inflation for a larger range of inflaton initial
conditions, due to trapping in the local minimum.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures. v2: Updated D3-dependence in potential, small
changes to numerical result
The Nociceptin/Orphanin FQ Receptor Antagonist UFP-101 Reduces Microvascular Inflammation to Lipopolysaccharide In Vivo
Microvascular inflammation occurs during sepsis and the endogenous opioid-like peptide nociceptin/orphanin FQ (N/OFQ) is known to regulate inflammation. This study aimed to determine the inflammatory role of N/OFQ and its receptor NOP (ORL1) within the microcirculation, along with anti-inflammatory effects of the NOP antagonist UFP-101 (University of Ferrara Peptide-101) in an animal model of sepsis (endotoxemia).
Male Wistar rats (220 to 300 g) were administered lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for 24 h (-24 h, 1 mg kg-1; -2 h, 1 mg kg-1 i.v., tail vein). They were then either anesthetised for observation of the mesenteric microcirculation using fluorescent in vivo microscopy, or isolated arterioles (~200 µm) were studied in vitro with pressure myography.
200 nM kg-1 fluorescently labelled N/OFQ (FITC-N/OFQ, i.a., mesenteric artery) bound to specific sites on the microvascular endothelium in vivo, indicating sparse distribution of NOP receptors. In vitro, arterioles (~200 µm) dilated to intraluminal N/OFQ (10-5M) (32.6 + 8.4%) and this response was exaggerated with LPS (62.0 +7.9%, p=0.031). In vivo, LPS induced macromolecular leak of FITC-BSA (0.02 g kg-1 i.v.) (LPS: 95.3 (86.7 to 97.9)%, p=0.043) from post-capillary venules (<40 µm) and increased leukocyte rolling as endotoxemia progressed (p=0.027), both being reduced by 150 nmol kg-1 UFP-101 (i.v., jugular vein).
Firstly, the rat mesenteric microcirculation expresses NOP receptors and secondly, NOP function (ability to induce dilation) is enhanced with LPS. UFP-101 also reduced microvascular inflammation to endotoxemia in vivo. Hence inhibition of the microvascular N/OFQ-NOP pathway may have therapeutic potential during sepsis and warrants further investigation
Brownian motion in AdS/CFT
We study Brownian motion and the associated Langevin equation in AdS/CFT. The
Brownian particle is realized in the bulk spacetime as a probe fundamental
string in an asymptotically AdS black hole background, stretching between the
AdS boundary and the horizon. The modes on the string are excited by the
thermal black hole environment and consequently the string endpoint at the
boundary undergoes an erratic motion, which is identified with an external
quark in the boundary CFT exhibiting Brownian motion. Semiclassically, the
modes on the string are thermally excited due to Hawking radiation, which
translates into the random force appearing in the boundary Langevin equation,
while the friction in the Langevin equation corresponds to the excitation on
the string being absorbed by the black hole. We give a bulk proof of the
fluctuation-dissipation theorem relating the random force and friction. This
work can be regarded as a step toward understanding the quantum microphysics
underlying the fluid-gravity correspondence. We also initiate a study of the
properties of the effective membrane or stretched horizon picture of black
holes using our bulk description of Brownian motion.Comment: 54 pages (38 pages + 5 appendices), 5 figures. v2: references added,
clarifications in 6.2. v3: clarifications, version submitted to JHE
Bosonization in Higher Dimensions
Using the recently discovered connection between bosonization and duality
transformations (hep-th/9401105 and hep-th/9403173), we give an explicit
path-integral representation for the bosonization of a massive fermion coupled
to a U(1) gauge potential (such as electromagnetism) in d space (D=d+1
spacetime) dimensions. The bosonic theory is described by a rank d-1
antisymmetric Kalb-Ramond-type gauge potential. We construct the bosonized
lagrangian explicitly in the limit of large fermion mass. We find that the
resulting action is local for d=2 (and given by a Chern-Simons action), but
nonlocal for d larger than 3. By coupling to a statistical Chern-Simons field
for d=2, we obtain a bosonized formulation of anyons. The bosonic theory may be
further dualized to a theory involving purely scalars, for any d, and we show
this to be governed by a higher-derivative lagrangian for which the scalar
decouples from the U(1) gauge potential.Comment: (We had omitted some references and had misspelled `aficionados')
plain TeX, 11 pages, McGill-94/33, NEIP-94-006, OSLO-TP 10-9
UK export performance research - review and implications
Previous research on export performance has been criticized for being a mosaic of autonomous endeavours and for a lack of theoretical development. Building upon extant models of export performance, and a review and analysis of research on export performance in the UK for the period 1990-2005, an integrated model of export performance is developed and theoretical explanations of export performance are put forward. It is suggested that a multi-theory approach to explaining export performance is viable. Management and policy implications for the UK emerging from the review and synthesis of the literature and the integrated model are discussed
Perceived influence of significant others on body shape of female and male college students
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