Crystal Structure, Infrared Spectra, and Microwave Dielectric Properties of Temperature-Stable Zircon-Type (Y,Bi)VO<inf>4</inf> Solid-Solution Ceramics

A series of (Bi 1-x Y x )VO 4 (0.4 ≤ x ≤ 1.0) ceramics were synthesized using the traditional solid-state reaction method. In the composition range of 0.4 ≤ x ≤ 1.0, a zircon-type solid solution was formed between 900 and 1550 °C. Combined with our previous work (scheelite monoclinic and zircon-type phases coexist in the range of x < 0.40), a pseudobinary phase diagram of BiVO 4 -YVO 4 is presented. As x decreased from 1.0 to 0.40, the microwave permittivity (ϵ r ) of (Bi 1-x Y x )VO 4 ceramics increased linearly from 11.03 to 30.9, coincident with an increase in the temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (TCF) from -61.3 to +103 ppm/°C. Excellent microwave dielectric properties were obtained for (Bi 0.3 Y 0.7 )VO 4 sintered at 1025 °C and (Bi 0.2 Y 0.8 )VO 4 sintered at 1075 °C with ϵ r ∼ 19.35, microwave quality factor (Qf) ∼ 25 760 GHz, and TCF ∼ +17.8 ppm/°C and ϵ r ∼ 16.3, Qf ∼ 31 100 GHz, and TCF ∼ -11.9 ppm/°C, respectively. Raman spectra, Shannon's additive rule, a classical oscillator model, and far-infrared spectra were employed to study the structure-property relations in detail. All evidence supported the premise that Bi-based vibrations dominate the dielectric permittivity in the microwave region

Novel water insoluble (NaxAg2-x) MoO4 (0 <= x <= 2) microwave dielectric ceramics with spinel structure sintered at 410 degrees

In the present work, a novel series of water insoluble ultra-low temperature firing (Na,Ag)2MoO4 microwave dielectrics were prepared via the traditional solid state reaction method. A spinel structured solid solution was formed in the full composition range in the (NaxAg2−x)MoO4 (0 ≤ x ≤ 2). As x increased from 0 to 2.0, cell volume decreased linearly from 9.32 Å to 9.10 Å. Sintering behavior were described using a so-called ‘bowing’ effect and densification was achieved below 420 °C for 0.5 ≤ x ≤ 1.2 with grain size, 1 to 5 μm. Optimum microwave dielectric properties were obtained for (Na1.2Ag0.8)MoO4 ceramics sintered at 410 °C with a permittivity ∼8.1, a microwave quality factor ∼44 800 GHz and the temperature coefficient of the resonant frequency ∼−82 ppm °C−1 at 13.9 GHz. Silver within the solid solution inhibited hydrolyzation of ceramics and also reduced their sintering temperature. Compared with the sintering temperatures of traditional microwave dielectric ceramic (Al2O3, >1400 °C) and normal low temperature co-fired ceramics (<960 °C), this system will save lots of energy during processing and accelerate developments of sustainable electronic materials and devices

High Quality Factor, Ultralow Sintering Temperature Li6B4O9 Microwave Dielectric Ceramics with Ultralow Density for Antenna Substrates

Dense Li6B4O9microwave dielectric ceramics were synthesized at low temperature via solid-state reaction using Li2CO3and LiBO2. Optimum permittivity ∼ 5.95, quality factor ∼ 41 800 GHz and temperature coefficient of resonant frequency ∼ - 72 ppm/°C were obtained in ceramics sintered at 640 °C with a ultrasmall bulk density ∼2.003 g/cm3(∼95% relative density, the smallest among all the reported microwave dielectric ceramics). Li6B4O9ceramics were shown to be chemically compatible with silver electrodes but reacted with aluminum forming Li3AlB2O6and Li2AlBO4secondary phases. A prototype patch antenna was fabricated by tape casting and screen printing. The antenna resonated at 4.255 GHz with a bandwidth ∼279 MHz at -10 dB transmission loss (S11) in agreement with simulated results. The Li6B4O9microwave dielectric ceramic possesses similar microwave dielectric properties to the commercial materials but much lower density and could be a good candidate for both antenna substrate and low-temperature cofired ceramics technology

Rising drug allergy alert overrides in electronic health records: an observational retrospective study of a decade of experience

Objective There have been growing concerns about the impact of drug allergy alerts on patient safety and provider alert fatigue. The authors aimed to explore the common drug allergy alerts over the last 10 years and the reasons why providers tend to override these alerts. Design: Retrospective observational cross-sectional study (2004–2013). Materials and Methods Drug allergy alert data (n = 611,192) were collected from two large academic hospitals in Boston, MA (USA). Results Overall, the authors found an increase in the rate of drug allergy alert overrides, from 83.3% in 2004 to 87.6% in 2013 (P < .001). Alarmingly, alerts for immune mediated and life threatening reactions with definite allergen and prescribed medication matches were overridden 72.8% and 74.1% of the time, respectively. However, providers were less likely to override these alerts compared to possible (cross-sensitivity) or probable (allergen group) matches (P < .001). The most common drug allergy alerts were triggered by allergies to narcotics (48%) and other analgesics (6%), antibiotics (10%), and statins (2%). Only slightly more than one-third of the reactions (34.2%) were potentially immune mediated. Finally, more than half of the overrides reasons pointed to irrelevant alerts (i.e., patient has tolerated the medication before, 50.9%) and providers were significantly more likely to override repeated alerts (89.7%) rather than first time alerts (77.4%, P < .001). Discussion and Conclusions These findings underline the urgent need for more efforts to provide more accurate and relevant drug allergy alerts to help reduce alert override rates and improve alert fatigue

Entangling power and operator entanglement in qudit systems

We establish the entangling power of a unitary operator on a general finite-dimensional bipartite quantum system with and without ancillas, and give relations between the entangling power based on the von Neumann entropy and the entangling power based on the linear entropy. Significantly, we demonstrate that the entangling power of a general controlled unitary operator acting on two equal-dimensional qudits is proportional to the corresponding operator entanglement if linear entropy is adopted as the quantity representing the degree of entanglement. We discuss the entangling power and operator entanglement of three representative quantum gates on qudits: the SUM, double SUM, and SWAP gates.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure. Version 3: Figure was improved and the MS was a bit shortene

High permittivity and low loss microwave dielectrics suitable for 5G resonators and low temperature co-fired ceramic architecture

Bi 2 (Li 0.5 Ta 1.5 )O 7 + xBi 2 O 3 (x = 0, 0.01 and 0.02) ceramics were prepared using a solid state reaction method. All compositions were crystallized in a single Bi 2 (Li 0.5 Ta 1.5 )O 7 phase without secondary peaks in X-ray diffraction patterns. Bi 2 (Li 0.5 Ta 1.5 )O 7 ceramics were densified at 1025 °C with a permittivity (ϵ r ) of ∼ 65.1, Q f ∼ 15500 GHz (Q ∼ microwave quality factor; f ∼ resonant frequency; 16780 GHz when annealed in O 2 ) and the temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (TCF) was ∼ -17.5 ppm °C -1 . The sintering temperature was lowered to ∼920 °C by the addition of 2 mol% excess Bi 2 O 3 (ϵ r ∼ 64.1, a Q f ∼ 11200 GHz/11650 GHz when annealed in O 2 and at a TCF of ∼ -19 ppm °C -1 ) with compositions chemically compatible with Ag electrodes. Bi 2 (Li 0.5 Ta 1.5 )O 7 + xBi 2 O 3 are ideal for application as dielectric resonators in 5G mobile base station technology for which ceramics with 60 < ϵ r < 70, high Q f and close to zero TCF are commercially unavailable. They may additionally prove to be useful as high ϵ r and high Q f materials in low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technology

Anisotropic phonon conduction and lattice distortions in CMR-type bilayer manganite (La1−z_{1-z}Prz_{z})1.2_{1.2}Sr1.8_{1.8}Mn2_{2}O7_{7} (z=0,0.2,0.4 and 0.6) single crystals

We have undertaken a systematic study of thermal conductivity as a function of temperature and magnetic field of single crystals of the compound (La$_{1-z}$Pr$_{z}$)$_{1.2}$Sr$_{1.8}$Mn$_{2}$O$_{7}$ for $z$(Pr) =0.2,0.4. and 0.6. The lattice distortion due to Pr-substitution and anisotropic thermal conductivity in bilayer manganites are discussed on the basis of different relaxation models of local lattice distortions in metal and insulating states proposed by Maderda et al. The giant magnetothermal effect is scaled as a function of magnetization and discussed on the basis of a systematic variation of the occupation of the $e_g$-electron orbital states due to Pr-substitution.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, in press in Phys.Rev.

Spin squeezing and pairwise entanglement for symmetric multiqubit states

We show that spin squeezing implies pairwise entanglement for arbitrary symmetric multiqubit states. If the squeezing parameter is less than or equal to 1, we demonstrate a quantitative relation between the squeezing parameter and the concurrence for the even and odd states. We prove that the even states generated from the initial state with all qubits being spin down, via the one-axis twisting Hamiltonian, are spin squeezed if and only if they are pairwise entangled. For the states generated via the one-axis twisting Hamiltonian with an external transverse field for any number of qubits greater than 1 or via the two-axis counter-twisting Hamiltonian for any even number of qubits, the numerical results suggest that such states are spin squeezed if and only if they are pairwise entangled.Comment: 6 pages. Version 3: Small corrections were mad

Temperature stable K0.5(Nd1−xBix)0.5MoO4 microwave dielectrics ceramics with ultra-low sintering temperature

K 0.5 (Nd 1-x Bi x ) 0.5 MoO 4 (0.2 ≤ x ≤ 0.7) ceramics were prepared via the solid-state reaction method. All ceramics densified below 720°C with a uniform microstructure. As x increased from 0.2 to 0.7, relative permittivity (e(open) r ) increased from 13.6 to 26.2 commensurate with an increase in temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (TCF) from - 31 ppm/°C to + 60 ppm/°C and a decrease in Qf value (Q = quality factor; f = resonant frequency) from 23 400 to 8620 GHz. Optimum TCF was obtained for x = 0.3 (-15 ppm/°C) and 0.4 (+4 ppm/°C) sintered at 660 and 620°C with e(open) r ~15.4, Q f ~19 650 GHz, and e(open) r ~17.3, Q f ~13 050 GHz, respectively. Ceramics in this novel solid solution are a candidate for ultra low temperature co-fired ceramic (ULTCC) technology

Quantitative investigation of two metallohydrolases by X-ray absorption spectroscopy near-edge spectroscopy

The last several years have witnessed a tremendous increase in biological applications using X-ray absorption spectroscopy (BioXAS), thanks to continuous advancements in synchrotron radiation (SR) sources and detector technology. However, XAS applications in many biological systems have been limited by the intrinsic limitations of the Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) technique e.g., the lack of sensitivity to bond angles. As a consequence, the application of the X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy changed this scenario that is now continuously changing with the introduction of the first quantitative XANES packages such as Minut XANES (MXAN). Here we present and discuss the XANES code MXAN, a novel XANES-fitting package that allows a quantitative analysis of experimental data applied to Zn K-edge spectra of two metalloproteins: Leptospira interrogans Peptide deformylase (LiPDF) and acutolysin-C, a representative of snake venom metalloproteinases (SVMPs) from Agkistrodon acutus venom. The analysis on these two metallohydrolases reveals that proteolytic activities are correlated to subtle conformation changes around the zinc ion. In particular, this quantitative study clarifies the occurrence of the LiPDF catalytic mechanism via a two-water-molecules model, whereas in the acutolysin-C we have observed a different proteolytic activity correlated to structural changes around the zinc ion induced by pH variations