Origin of Discrepancies in Inelastic Electron Tunneling Spectra of Molecular Junctions

We report inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy (IETS) of multilayer molecular junctions with and without incorporated metal nano-particles. The incorporation of metal nanoparticles into our devices leads to enhanced IET intensity and a modified line-shape for some vibrational modes. The enhancement and line-shape modification are both the result of a low lying hybrid metal nanoparticle-molecule electronic level. These observations explain the apparent discrepancy between earlier IETS measurements of alkane thiolate junctions by Kushmerick \emph{et al.} [Nano Lett. \textbf{4}, 639 (2004)] and Wang \emph{et al.} [Nano Lett. \textbf{4}, 643 (2004)].Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Black Holes and (0,4) SCFTs from Type IIB on K3

We study the central charges and levels of 2d $\mathcal{N}=(0,4)$ superconformal field theories that are dual to four- and five-dimensional BPS black holes in compactifications of type IIB string theory on a K3 surface. They arise from wrapping a D3-brane on a curve $C$ inside K3 and have transverse space either an ALE or ALF space. These D3-branes have an AdS$_3 \times \mathrm{S}^3/ \Gamma$ near horizon geometry where $\Gamma$ is a discrete subgroup of $SU(2)$. We compute the central charges and levels of the 2d SCFTs both in the microscopic picture and from six-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=(2,0)$ supergravity. These quantities determine the black hole entropy via Cardy's formula. We find agreement between the microscopic and macroscopic computations. The contributions from one-loop quantum corrections to the macroscopic result are crucial for this matching.Comment: 36 pages; v2: published version, footnotes added, minor typos correcte

RECONCILING NEGATIVITY WITH POSITIVE LEADERSHIP: A PRACTICAL APPLICATION

Purpose: The main goal of this article is to reconcile the concept of negativity with positive leadership approaches in a real-world setting.Methodology: We interviewed Mr. Paul Fayad, ex-President & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of HHA Services, to describe his experience in implementing positive leadership and the role of negativity, and superficially negative behaviors, in creating an engaged workforce.Findings: Effective positive leadership is not unerringly optimistic in all moments and in all things. Instead, it is a responsibility to create a positive work environment for everyone working in your company. This means that managers have to not only keep their people happy, but also eliminate the negative, which can be the wrong people, the wrong process, the wrong equipment, or other processes that should be eliminated. In the elimination of this negative, sometimes critical (or focused-negative) behaviors are required of the “positive leader”.Implications: Negativity is a part of positive leadership, especially during the hiring process and critical conversation. The importance of addressing negativity is discussed

Sensory sensitivity as a link between concussive traumatic brain injury and PTSD.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most common injuries to military personnel, a population often exposed to stressful stimuli and emotional trauma. Changes in sensory processing after TBI might contribute to TBI-post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) comorbidity. Combining an animal model of TBI with an animal model of emotional trauma, we reveal an interaction between auditory sensitivity after TBI and fear conditioning where 75 dB white noise alone evokes a phonophobia-like phenotype and when paired with footshocks, fear is robustly enhanced. TBI reduced neuronal activity in the hippocampus but increased activity in the ipsilateral lateral amygdala (LA) when exposed to white noise. The white noise effect in LA was driven by increased activity in neurons projecting from ipsilateral auditory thalamus (medial geniculate nucleus). These data suggest that altered sensory processing within subcortical sensory-emotional circuitry after TBI results in neutral stimuli adopting aversive properties with a corresponding impact on facilitating trauma memories and may contribute to TBI-PTSD comorbidity