2,959 research outputs found
Development of ion implantation techniques for microelectronics
Ion implantation process for fabricating active devices in high bandgap semiconductor materials for high temperature operatio
Teaching Tip: developing an intercollegiate Twitter forum to aid student exam study and the development of digital professionalism
#VetFinals has been developed as a novel online Twitter teaching event designed to support intercollegiate veterinary teaching using social media. Previous studies in other fields have suggested that Twitter use within universities may have benefits for undergraduate education. This “teaching tip” paper describes a project using Twitter to host online exam study sessions. The project has been a highly successful collaborative effort between the Royal Veterinary College and Nottingham Veterinary School in the UK. Over 4 years, the #VetFinals project has developed into a long-term, self-sustaining enterprise. This initiative provides a semi-structured means for student exam preparation with direct real-time input from a faculty member. It also creates a network of peers both horizontally across institutions and vertically throughout year groups. Based on similar initiatives in other disciplines, an anticipated outcome of this project was to contribute to student online professionalism. This could help address the veterinary community's recently highlighted problems with professional conduct and appropriate use of social media. Analysis of the success of this endeavor will be available in a future publication
Service Quality Determinants and Effectiveness in the Real Estate Brokerage Industry
This study provides an analysis of the real estate brokerage industry for the purposes of identifying the determinants of service quality, the level of service quality, and possible service quality improvement measures. Factor analysis of survey response data is used to develop an empirical application of a theoretical service quality model. Except for rank order, real estate service quality determinants are found to match those in other industries. Real estate service quality met expectations in three areas, and was below expectations in two areas. Salesperson performance evaluation measures are suggested to improve service quality.
A quick RNA mini-prep for Neurospora mycelial cultures
Most RNA isolation techniques currently in use have been developed for the processing of large quantities of material. These typically involve multiple phenol extractions (Reinert et al. 1981 Mol. Cell Biol. 1:829-836) or guanadinium isothio-cyanate/cesium chloride gradients (Chirgwin et al. 1979 Biochem 18:5294-5299) and can be both expensive and time consuming. Often, however, needs arise where quantitatively smaller amounts of RNA are needed from many different samples, for example, during time series analyses or when screening transformants for expression of a transformed gene. Under such circumstances, existing techniques are overly time consuming and yield more RNA than is necessary. The availability of a rapid RNA mini-prep is thus desirable. Such a system has been developed for isolating plant RNA (Nagy et al. 1988 Plant Molecular Biology Manual, B4; ed. Gelvin and Schilperoort, Klewer Academic Publishing, pp. 1-29), and we have adapted this procedure for use with Neurospora and, potentially, other filamentous fungi. Below, we describe the use of this procedure with 50 ml mycelial cultures, although we have used in with equal success with 5 ml cultures without scaling down the amounts of any reagents
Growth and Structure of Stochastic Sequences
We introduce a class of stochastic integer sequences. In these sequences,
every element is a sum of two previous elements, at least one of which is
chosen randomly. The interplay between randomness and memory underlying these
sequences leads to a wide variety of behaviors ranging from stretched
exponential to log-normal to algebraic growth. Interestingly, the set of all
possible sequence values has an intricate structure.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
A Nonpolar Blueberry Fraction Blunts NADPH Oxidase Activation in Neuronal Cells Exposed to Tumor Necrosis Factor-α
Inflammation and oxidative stress are key to the progressive neuronal degeneration common to chronic pathologies, traumatic injuries, and aging processes in the CNS. The proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) orchestrates cellular stress by stimulating the production and release of neurotoxic mediators including reactive oxygen species (ROS). NADPH oxidases (NOX), ubiquitously expressed in all cells, have recently emerged as pivotal ROS sources in aging and disease. We demonstrated the presence of potent NOX inhibitors in wild Alaska bog blueberries partitioning discretely into a nonpolar fraction with minimal antioxidant capacity and largely devoid of polyphenols. Incubation of SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells with nonpolar blueberry fractions obstructed the coalescing of lipid rafts into large domains disrupting NOX assembly therein and abolishing ROS production characteristic for TNF-α exposure. These findings illuminate nutrition-derived lipid raft modulation as a novel therapeutic approach to blunt inflammatory and oxidative stress in the aging or diseased CNS
Zener transitions between dissipative Bloch bands. II: Current Response at Finite Temperature
We extend, to include the effects of finite temperature, our earlier study of
the interband dynamics of electrons with Markoffian dephasing under the
influence of uniform static electric fields. We use a simple two-band
tight-binding model and study the electric current response as a function of
field strength and the model parameters. In addition to the Esaki-Tsu peak,
near where the Bloch frequency equals the damping rate, we find current peaks
near the Zener resonances, at equally spaced values of the inverse electric
field. These become more prominenent and numerous with increasing bandwidth (in
units of the temperature, with other parameters fixed). As expected, they
broaden with increasing damping (dephasing).Comment: 5 pages, LateX, plus 5 postscript figure
On Fourier integral transforms for -Fibonacci and -Lucas polynomials
We study in detail two families of -Fibonacci polynomials and -Lucas
polynomials, which are defined by non-conventional three-term recurrences. They
were recently introduced by Cigler and have been then employed by Cigler and
Zeng to construct novel -extensions of classical Hermite polynomials. We
show that both of these -polynomial families exhibit simple transformation
properties with respect to the classical Fourier integral transform
Resonance Effects in the Nonadiabatic Nonlinear Quantum Dimer
The quantum nonlinear dimer consisting of an electron shuttling between the
two sites and in weak interaction with vibrations, is studied numerically under
the application of a DC electric field. A field-induced resonance phenomenon
between the vibrations and the electronic oscillations is found to influence
the electronic transport greatly. For initially delocalization of the electron,
the resonance has the effect of a dramatic increase in the transport. Nonlinear
frequency mixing is identified as the main mechanism that influences transport.
A characterization of the frequency spectrum is also presented.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
Direct Minimization Generating Electronic States with Proper Occupation Numbers
We carry out the direct minimization of the energy functional proposed by
Mauri, Galli and Car to derive the correct self-consistent ground state with
fractional occupation numbers for a system degenerating at the Fermi level. As
a consequence, this approach enables us to determine the electronic structure
of metallic systems to a high degree of accuracy without the aid of level
broadening of the Fermi-distribution function. The efficiency of the method is
illustrated by calculating the ground-state energy of C and Si
molecules and the W(110) surface to which a tungsten adatom is adsorbed.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
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