Characterization of grain boundaries in silicon

Zero-bias conductance and capacitance measurements at various temperatures were used to study trapped charges and potential barrier height at the boundaries. Deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) was applied to measure the density of states at the boundary. A study of photoconductivity of grain boundaries in p-type silicon demonstrated the applicability of the technique in the measurement of minority carrier recombination velocity at the grain boundary. Enhanced diffusion of phosphorus at grain boundaries in three cast polycrystalline photovoltaic materials was studied. Enhancements for the three were the same, indicating that the properties of boundaries are similar, although grown by different techniques. Grain boundaries capable of enhancing the diffusion were found always to have strong recombination activities; the phenomena could be related to dangling bonds at the boundaries. Evidence that incoherent second-order twins of (111)/(115) type are diffusion-active is presented

What characteristics of nursing homes are most valued by consumers? A discrete choice experiment with residents and family members

Objectives: To generate a scoring algorithm weighted on the preferences of consumers for assessing the quality of care in nursing homes (i.e., aged care homes or institutions) in six key domains. Methods: A discrete choice experiment was undertaken with residents of nursing homes (n = 126) or family member proxies (n = 416) in cases where severe cognitive impairment precluded resident participation. Analysis was undertaken using conditional and mixed logit regression models to determine preferences for potential attributes. Results: The findings indicate that all six attributes investigated were statistically significant factors for participants. Feeling at home in the resident's own room was the most important characteristic to both residents and family members. Care staff being able to spend enough time with residents, feeling at home in shared spaces, and staff being very flexible in care routines were also characteristics identified as important for both groups. The results of the Swait-Louviere test rejected the null hypothesis that the estimated parameters between residents and family members were the same, indicating that data from these two groups could not be pooled to generate a single weighted scoring algorithm for the Consumer Choice Index-Six Dimension instrument. Preferences were therefore encapsulated to generate scoring algorithms specific to residents and family members.This study provides important insights into the characteristics of nursing home care that are most valued by consumers. The Consumer Choice Index-Six Dimension instrument may be usefully applied in the evaluation, planning, and design of future services.Rachel Milte, Julie Ratcliffe, Gang Chen, Maria Crott

Securitization and financialization

Securitization and financialization are the main causes of the financial crisis. These two concepts explain not only Minsky’s financial instability hypothesis but also the off-balance-sheet operations represented by erivative products, which are closely related to mortgage loans. Financial intermediaries in need of liquidity did everything in their power so that the securitization of assets could have a life of its own in financial operations. This is a process that is endogenous to the development of financialization. Because said process was a violation of the monetary economy, it was necessary for central banks to intervene as “lenders of last resort” as well as to nationalize and restructure all the financial intermediaries

Unveiling Neutrino Mixing and Leptonic CP Violation

We review the present understanding of neutrino masses and mixings, discussing what are the unknowns in the three family oscillation scenario. Despite the anticipated success coming from the planned long baseline neutrino experiments in unraveling the leptonic mixing sector, there are two important unknowns which may remain obscure: the mixing angle $\theta_{13}$ and the CP-phase $\delta$. The measurement of these two parameters has led us to consider the combination of superbeams and neutrino factories as the key to unveil the neutrino oscillation picture.Comment: Invited brief review, 18 pages, 6 figure

The effect of static scanning and mobility training on mobility in people with hemianopia after stroke: A randomized controlled trial comparing standardized versus non-standardized treatment protocols

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

On the gravitational production of superheavy dark matter

The dark matter in the universe can be in the form of a superheavy matter species (WIMPZILLA). Several mechanisms have been proposed for the production of WIMPZILLA particles during or immediately following the inflationary epoch. Perhaps the most attractive mechanism is through gravitational particle production, where particles are produced simply as a result of the expansion of the universe. In this paper we present a detailed numerical calculation of WIMPZILLA gravitational production in hybrid-inflation models and natural-inflation models. Generalizing these findings, we also explore the dependence of the gravitational production mechanism on various models of inflation. We show that superheavy dark matter production seems to be robust, with Omega_X h^2 ~ (M_X / (10^11 GeV))^2 (T_RH / (10^9 GeV)), so long as M_X < H_I, where M_X is the WIMPZILLA mass, T_RH is the reheat temperature, and H_I is the expansion rate of the universe during inflation.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures; LaTeX; submitted to Physical Review D; minor typographical error correcte

Current cosmological bounds on neutrino masses and relativistic relics

We combine the most recent observations of large-scale structure (2dF and SDSS galaxy surveys) and cosmic microwave anisotropies (WMAP and ACBAR) to put constraints on flat cosmological models where the number of massive neutrinos and of massless relativistic relics are both left arbitrary. We discuss the impact of each dataset and of various priors on our bounds. For the standard case of three thermalized neutrinos, we find an upper bound on the total neutrino mass sum m_nu < 1.0 (resp. 0.6) eV (at 2sigma), using only CMB and LSS data (resp. including priors from supernovae data and the HST Key Project), a bound that is quite insensitive to the splitting of the total mass between the three species. When the total number of neutrinos or relativistic relics N_eff is left free, the upper bound on sum m_nu (at 2sigma, including all priors) ranges from 1.0 to 1.5 eV depending on the mass splitting. We provide an explanation of the parameter degeneracy that allows larger values of the masses when N_eff increases. Finally, we show that the limit on the total neutrino mass is not significantly modified in the presence of primordial gravitational waves, because current data provide a clear distinction between the corresponding effects.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Neutrino Telescopes' Sensitivity to Dark Matter

The nature of the dark matter of the Universe is yet unknown and most likely is connected with new physics. The search for its composition is under way through direct and indirect detection. Fundamental physical aspects such as energy threshold, geometry and location are taken into account to investigate proposed neutrino telescopes of km^3 volume sensitivities to dark matter. These sensitivities are just sufficient to test a few WIMP scenarios. Telescopes of km^3 volume, such as IceCube, can definitely discover or exclude superheavy (M > 10^10 GeV) Strong Interacting Massive Particles (Simpzillas). Smaller neutrino telescopes such as ANTARES, AMANDA-II and NESTOR can probe a large region of the Simpzilla parameter space.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figure

Multiple paths through the complexities of globalization: : The next three years of Competition & Change

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Hulya Dagdeviren, Peter Lund-Thomsen and Leo McCann, 'Multiple paths through the complexities of globalization: The next three years of Competition & Change'. The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Competition & Change, Vol 2 (1): 3-9, advanced access publication 1 February 2017. DOI: 10.1177/1024529416680875. © The Author(s) 2016. Published by SAGE Publishing, All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Cosmological neutrinos

The current status of neutrino cosmology is reviewed, from the question of neutrino decoupling and the presence of sterile neutrinos to the effects of neutrinos on the cosmic microwave background and large scale structure. Particular emphasis is put on cosmological neutrino mass measurements.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures, review for NJP focus issue on neutrino