Oral health beliefs and behaviors of nurse and nurse practitioner students using the HU-DBI inventory: An opportunity for oral health vicarious learning

Background: Oral health access to care issues are resulting in curricular changes to train nursing students as oral health educators and providers. However, little data are available concerning their personal oral health beliefs/behaviors. The study purpose was to gather information from nurse and nurse practitioner students regarding their oral health beliefs and behaviors. Methods: Using the Hiroshima University Dental Behavioural Inventory (HU-DBI), survey data were gathered from nurse and nurse practitioner students as well as dental hygiene students as controls concerning their oral health beliefs and behaviors. Results: Mean HU-DBI scores were higher among nurse practitioner than nursing students, indicating more positive beliefs/behaviors, but both were lower than dental hygiene students. Both nurse and nurse practitioner students reported significantly fewer dental visits and some poorer hygiene practices than controls. Additionally, nursing students were more likely to believe that their teeth were worsening despite brushing. Conclusions: Assessment of personal oral health beliefs/behaviors should occur early in nursing education with mentoring so that optimal modeling can positively impact patients’ oral health. Oral health education opportunities within and among disciplines are discussed

Bright solitary waves in a Bose-Einstein condensate and their interactions

We examine the dynamics of two bright solitary waves with a negative nonlinear term. The observed repulsion between two solitary waves -- when these are in an antisymmetric combination -- is attributed to conservation laws. Slight breaking of parity, in combination with weak relaxation of energy, leads the two solitary waves to merge. The effective repulsion between solitary waves requires certain nearly ideal conditions and is thus fragile.Comment: 6 pages, 14 figure

Dispersion and transitions of dipolar plasmon modes in graded plasmonic waveguides

Coupled plasmon modes are studied in graded plasmonic waveguides, which are periodic chains of metallic nanoparticles embedded in a host with gradually varying refractive indices. We identify three types of localized modes called "light", "heavy", and "light-heavy" plasmonic gradons outside the passband, according to various degrees of localization. We also demonstrate new transitions among extended and localized modes when the interparticle separation $d$ is smaller than a critical $d_c$, whereas the three types of localized modes occur for $d>d_c$, with no extended modes. The transitions can be explained with phase diagrams constructed for the lossless metallic systems.Comment: Preliminary results have been presented at ETOPIM 7. Submitted to Appl. Phys. Let

A Gate-Induced Switch in Zigzag Graphene Naoribbons and Charging Effects

Using non-equilibrium Green's function formalism, we investigate nonlinear transport and charging effects of gated graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) with even number of zigzag chains. We find a negative differential resistance (NDR) over a wide range of gate voltages with on/off ratio $\sim 10^6$ for narrow enough ribbons. This NDR originates from the parity selection rule and also prohibition of transport between discontinues energy bands. Since the external field is well screened close to the contacts, the NDR is robust against the electrostatic potential. However, for voltages higher than the NDR threshold, due to charge transfer through the edges of ZGNR, screening is reduced such that the external potential can penetrate inside the ribbon giving rise to smaller values of off current. Furthermore, on/off ratio of the current depends on the aspect ratio of the length/width and also edge impurity. Moreover, on/off ratio displays a power law behavior as a function of ribbon length.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure

Theoretical study of ionization of an alkali atom adsorbed on a metal surface by laser assisted subfemtosecond pulse

The first numerical simulation of the process of ionization of an atom adsorbed on a metal surface by the subfemtosecond pulse is presented. The streaking scheme is considered, when a weak sub-femtosecond pulse comes together with a strong IR pulse with a variable delay between them. The problem is analyzed with numerical solving the non-stationary Schroedinger equation in the cylindrical coordinate. The results obtained are compared with ones in the gas phase. We show that the surface influences the DDCS, but the observation of this influence, beside the trivial polarization shift of the energy of the initial state, requires a quite high experimental resolution

Dopant Induced Stabilization of Silicon Cluster at Finite Temperature

With the advances in miniaturization, understanding and controlling properties of significant technological systems like silicon in nano regime assumes considerable importance. It turns out that small silicon clusters in the size range of 15-20 atoms are unstable upon heating and in fact fragment in the temperature range of 1200 K to 1500 K. In the present work we demonstrate that it is possible to stabilize such clusters by introducing appropriate dopant (in this case Ti). Specifically, by using the first principle density functional simulations we show that Ti doped Si$_{16}$, having the Frank-Kasper geometry, remains stable till 2200 K and fragments only above 2600 K. The observed melting transition is a two step process. The first step is initiated by the surface melting around 600 K. The second step is the destruction of the cage which occurs around 2250 K giving rise to a peak in the heat capacity curve.Comment: 6 pages, 8 Figs. Submitted to PR

Interactions of Cosmic Superstrings

We develop methods by which cosmic superstring interactions can be studied in detail. These include the reconnection probability and emission of radiation such as gravitons or small string loops. Loop corrections to these are discussed, as well as relationships to $(p,q)$-strings. These tools should allow a phenomenological study of string models in anticipation of upcoming experiments sensitive to cosmic string radiation.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures; v2: updated reference

Temperature dependence in random matrix models with pairing condensates

We address a number of issues raised by a manuscript of Klein, Toublan, and Verbaarschot (hep-ph/0405180) in which the authors introduce a random matrix model for QCD with two colors, two flavors, and fermions in the fundamental representation. Their inclusion of temperature terms differs from the approach adopted in previous work on this problem (Phys. Rev. D 64, 074016 (2001).) We demonstrate that the two approaches are related by a transformation that leaves the thermodynamic potential invariant and which therefore has no effect on physical observables.Comment: 8 pages, revtex4. v2: typos corrected in reference